Sundered Veil
by lordtrayus
Summary: An old enemy has returned from Purgatory thanks to Castiel, eager for revenge against the boys. And his first act of revenge is to murder Sam. And Dean is the main suspect for his murder. As Dean struggles to prove his innocence and retain his sanity, Bobby enlists the help of Jody Mills to help clear Dean, and allow him to hunt his deadly foe before he can complete his revenge...
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural**

Sundered Veil

He exploded out of Castiel, eager to get away as the arrogant, power hungry angel began to put the souls he had consumed back into Purgatory on the orders of the Winchesters. However, while the gate that opened to Purgatory was before him, he had no intention of going back there. Oh no. He had much grander plans than being trapped forever in that cesspit with other ingrates such as monsters and ghosts. Calling on his rather vast reserves of strength, despite the fact that he was dead, he rebounded off the wall, and saw numerous black and grey streams of smoke, all exactly like his own, spiralling away from Purgatory, all eager to return to life just like he was. That insolent little rebel had assured his return, and at long last, he could make amends.

He streaked out of the warehouse, far from Castiel and his friends, the swirl of dark grey smoke streaking across the land. Confident that he had gone far enough he plummeted to the earth, the grey smoke pelting into the ground, and coalescing.

Four strong paws formed, as did a strong ferocious body, and then a strong head formed, surrounded by a golden mane. This body would do for now. He would achieve a human form later. For now, he had to wait. He knew full well what other monsters that idiot Castiel had absorbed. Monsters who were a threat to people like him, a threat to all life.

Leviathans.

And Castiel had set them loose.

He made a satisfied noise in his throat as he padded away from where he had landed. It wouldn't do well for those little insects called humanity to see him prowling the country side. People would tend to panic if they saw a lion stalking the land.

He would accumulate his strength. Castiel would be destroyed by the Leviathans, he knew that, it was just a matter of time. And then, the Winchesters would feel morally obliged to deal with them. And while they did so, he would gain in strength, day by day, until all his powers and his human body were returned to him.

And then, once they were, he would get what he so desired.

Revenge, on those maggots called the Winchesters.

XX

Another hunt was over, the ghost banished onwards, and the boys were once more in the car of the week, heading back to their motel after a job well done. A ghost of a janitor who had died in a school had been killing people who made a mess of the floors he had laboriously kept clean in life, drowning them with disinfectant. Sam and Dean had arrived just in time to free a student from his clutches and had quickly sent him on by burning the mop that he had anchored himself to, kept in the school for years.

"Am I still on the no sex ban?" Dean asked uncertainly of his brother, who glowered at him.

In the last several months, his brother had had enough unpleasant experiences that he ought to be considering becoming a monk and taking a vow of celibacy. After having sex with an Amazon a few months back, he had soon had a monster child that had been sent to kill him, an initiation rite into her tribe. Sam had arrived just in time to save his brother, who had been hesitating over killing her, despite having lectured Sam months before that monsters should always be killed, which had put certain strain on their relationship. A couple of months ago now, Sam's insane ex wife had returned, and had joined forces with a siren who their friend Castiel had freed from Purgatory. He had turned Dean into a siren and had basically made him a love slave, which still brought a red twinge of embarrassment to Dean's face whenever Sam brought it up. And his most recent encounter had been with a gorgon, who also transpired to be Medusa's sister and hence the strongest and oldest in the world. As a result of that encounter, Dean had spent a few days as a statue, trapped in stone, before Sam had killed the gorgon and freed his brother.

"Yes." Sam replied in a tone that broached no argument, and he smiled a little as he saw Dean's pout.

"But Sammy, I've used all the magazines you got me!" he whined, and Sam fixed him with a steely glare.

"Well buy some new ones. And seriously? That was two weeks ago, and I got you half a dozen. I ought to drag you to counselling." He said in concern, and Dean grinned.

"I'd rather chop my head off than have it examined. Besides, you're the insane one." Dean reminded, and Sam shook his head stubbornly.

"Nu-uh. Not since Cas fixed me I haven't been. Well, other than the fact that I keep putting up with you, but I think that's more convenience than insanity." Sam teased, and Dean grinned, knowing his brother didn't really mean it.

"At least you can sleep properly again and don't have Lucifer in your head. I suppose Cas did something decent when he took the insanity into himself." He said, and Sam frowned at his brother.

He knew his brother was furious with Cas, for his betrayal, and above all else for what he had done to Sam. But unlike when Sam made a mistake, Dean hadn't even tried to hurt Cas like he normally would. Sam had been soulless, something that had also been Cas' fault, something Sam had had no control over, and his brother had still smashed his face in when he found out the truth. But he hadn't laid a finger on saint Castiel, Sam thought bitterly. He decided to ignore yet another case of Dean's obvious double standards. And besides, Cas had saved his life by doing what he had done, and he was thankful for that. Didn't mean he didn't want to kick his ass for it all though.

He smiled as he looked at his brother, remembering that he still owed Dean a beating after his drunken, self hating older brother had tried to kill him, however unintentionally, while they had been in Dillimore. Ah well, people always said he was the sweet one, so he figured he'd let it go. Besides, the occasional dig at his brother's expense more than qualified for making his brother feel guilty.

"Come on Sammy, I've learnt my lesson, please let me go out!" Dean wheedled, flashing his brother what he obviously thought was a pleading look, but it didn't faze Sam whatsoever.

"No, because if something happens to you, you're on your own, I'm not coming to rescue you from another date gone wrong." He said scathingly, and Dean sighed, though he was smiling.

He honestly hadn't expected his brother to allow him out of his site and let him back onto the dating scene. Sam had been incredibly freaked out by finding his brother's stone body, and he could understand his brother not wanting anything like that happening to him again. And after all, Dean usually drove Sam nuts with his overprotective streak, it was only fair if Sam got a go too.

They entered their motel room to find Bobby, once more engrossed in the soap opera Passions.

"How was it?" he asked, not diverting his attention from the screen.

"Fine, not a scratch on us. A bruise where I'd rather it wasn't on me, but aside from that and bruising my dignity a little, nothing to report." Dean said as he flopped onto his bed, which was, as always, the one closest to the door.

"Good. Now, keep quiet, it's getting interesting." Bobby said, and Sam rolled his eyes at his brother and once more became engrossed in his book, while Dean played a game on his phone.

Frequent though they were, these were some of the moments the brothers loved the most, when they were just together, hanging out, with nothing other than distant threats to worry about.

Little did they know that outside a man was watching their room, evil in mind, and revenge on his agenda.

XX

He had finally resumed his human form, though it had taken him weeks after he had initially landed. Ever since then, he had been following the Winchesters, gathering his strength, wanting to be at his full power for when he once more encountered them. After all, they had caused significant havoc to him and his reputation the last time they had encountered one another, and he had underestimated them many times before, and by so doing had lost his position and had also managed to get himself killed in his last encounter with them.

This time, it would be different. He had been waiting for months. Now, he was finally ready to strike, and there was nothing they could do to stop him. And the best part was, neither of them would know, and with what he had planned, very soon his enemy would be consumed by madness.

He smiled grimly. Castiel was gone. The Leviathans were far away, planning to take over the world. Others like him were few and far between. Nothing would get in his way, and this time, the boys would stay dead. But only after he inflicted every form of pain and torture he could imagine would he finally kill them.

He smiled at the room, and made himself invisible to await his chance.

XX

Hours later, Dean's stomach was rumbling, and with Sam engrossed in his own soap opera, he supposed it would be up to him to go and get some food.

"What do you want for dinner?" Dean asked, and Sam thought about it.

"Chinese." He said, and Dean grinned. He could just hear a couple of spring rolls calling his name.

Checking the laptop, he found the local business, and seeing it was quite close by, he decided to walk down.

"You coming?" he asked his brother, who shook his head, and then gave Dean a pointed look.

"No, but Bobby is." He said, and Dean rolled his eyes.

"Come on Sammy! It was two weeks ago that I got turned into a statue, I'm hardly going to be in danger walking down to the Chinese!" he protested, and he had to admit, he was getting a little tired of his brother's coddling. He knew it was because Sam cared about him, and because he had been rattled by the gorgon encounter, but a guy could only take so much.

"Now you know how I feel when you're an overprotective pain in my ass." Sam said brightly, making Bobby chuckle.

Dean sighed.

"Look Sam, I know I scared you last time, and I'm sorry I did. But I'll be fine, I'm only going to the Chinese down the road, and I'll be back in ten minutes tops." He said, and Sam looked at him sceptically.

"We only went out for groceries in El Quebrados and in Palomino Creek, and we both got kidnapped there." He reminded him.

"Yeah, but that was different." Dean protested.

"Ok, don't take Bobby, leave him here if it's so important to you." Sam said grumpily, looking slightly hurt.

Dean sighed. He knew his brother was just looking out for him, trying to protect him. And he knew he was getting a taste of his own medicine, as that was what he did to Sam, and Sam, while he protested, usually just let Dean get on with it. He supposed the least he could do was try and make his brother feel better. After all, getting turned into a siren and a statue had shaken Sam more than he was willing to admit, and if Dean could make him feel better, then so be it.

"Alright, I'll take him. If only to make sure you aren't a whiny bitch all night." He conceded, and Sam smiled in victory.

"Thanks Dean. I know I'm being annoying..."

"But I should just suck it up and get on with it, after all, it's what I make you do." He said fondly, and picked up Bobby's flask.

"You know, you boys are always picking me up. Either of you ever consider I might not want to go anywhere with either of you?" Bobby asked musingly, and Sam and Dean looked at each other, part nervous, part amused.

"Well, as you sort of rely on us to get you from A to B, you sort of need our legpower." Dean pointed out, and Bobby chuckled.

"Yeah I suppose. Rub it in why don't you? Alright, I'll go with Super Stud here and make sure he doesn't pick up any potentially deadly girls." Bobby assured Sam, who grinned.

"Good luck with that." He said cheekily, and Dean glowered at him.

"You know, next time you pick up a girl, I'm going to make your life a living hell." He vowed darkly, and Sam looked at him innocently.

"Dean, you always make my life hell when I pick up a girl. But at least I..."

"Haven't had a kid with one, been turned into a monster by one or turned to stone by one, yeah yeah." He said grumpily, heading for the door with Bobby in his pocket.

"Ooh, bring me shredded beef!" Sam called as Dean left, and Dean shook his head muttering darkly to himself.

"I hate having a smart ass baby brother." He grumbled, pointedly ignoring Bobby as he laughed, and the two set off for the Chinese.

XX

The man watched as Dean left, their pet ghost hovering around him. Excellent. That meant Sam was all alone. And now, it would finally be time to begin to exact his revenge. After all his years of waiting, all this time savouring his hatred of the brothers, it was finally the moment when he would begin to take it out.

He headed over the street, excitement filling him as he approached the door to Sam and Dean's room.

It was time to settle a score.

XX

Sam looked up as Dean entered, looking cheerful about something, his eyes widening in delight as he looked at Sam.

"Hey, what happened to getting something to eat?" Sam asked as he came out of the bathroom, frowning slightly at his big brother, as he was also beginning to feel a bit hungry.

"There's a queue, I'll wait for it to go down a bit." He said dismissively, and Sam looked around the room, not seeing any sign of their resident ghost.

"Where's Bobby?" Sam asked, and Dean shot him a bored glance.

"What's with all the questions?" he asked in an irritated voice, and Sam narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"What's with the attitude laden answers? I only asked where Bobby was, you know, the guy who's saved our asses a good few times." He said, and Dean waved him off.

"Bobby's fine, he told me to put him in the car." He said, and Sam shrugged. Maybe Bobby just needed to get away from the boys for a while, he couldn't blame him. Especially if they wound up drinking tonight. While Sam was relatively sensible when he drank, due to Dean going under a forced detox after Dillimore, he wasn't holding his drink nearly as well as he used to, and he supposed seeing Dean puke up his guts with a hangover every time they drank was enough to put anyone off staying in the room with them.

But, while the explanation did make sense, Sam was beginning to feel that there was something that wasn't quite right with Dean.

"Are you ok? You seem odd." Sam asked warily as Dean kicked off his shoes, a smile of ecstasy on his face as he did so.

"I told you I'm fine." Dean said, in a voice that didn't sound quite like his own, and Sam rolled his eyes, frustrated by this.

"Dean, I swear if you've been entranced by something again, I'm going to give you that ass kicking I owe you from Dillimore." He grumbled, and Dean smiled.

"Relax Sammy. I'm not entranced. I just don't want to keep having the same, worry filled conversations with an insignificant worm like you." He said coldly, and Sam flinched at the frigid tone of his brother's voice.

So, either Dean was upset about something and was lashing now and hoping to avoid explaining later, or worse, something was wrong with him. Again. Forcing down the slight hurt he felt at his brother's comment, he crossed his arms and glared at him.

"Alright, what is your problem? You only left two minutes ago, and even you can't have gotten entranced or replaced in that amount of time. What's up?" he asked, and Dean sighed, looking at his brother with a pitying glance.

"Nothing's up. Sorry Sam. I'm just a little, well, bored. Unfulfilled." He said in a forlorn voice, and Sam smiled a little.

"Is this about the sex ban I put on you? I'm actually impressed you kept to it." He said, still looking not quite trustingly at his older brother.

"Yeah well, that's me. The impressive big brother. But it isn't that that's bothering me." He said, standing, and Sam looked at him suspiciously. Dean was never this listless, or restless, all at the same time.

He knew his brother better than anybody. And he knew something wasn't right with him. His rudeness, his blatant lack of concern for where Bobby was, and something about him just didn't seem quite right. Worry filled Sam's gut as he beheld his older brother.

"Well what is bothering you then?" Sam asked, and Dean walked closer towards him, and Sam began to get a little scared as he felt himself being pressed towards the wall. Dean was beginning to seem scary, and he wasn't used to his brother actually aiming to scare him.

"You wonder what it's like to die? I mean truly die, no comebacks like we usually do?" he asked musingly, and Sam took a step back, his back meeting the wall, flexing his wrist as he did so, not sure if he could trust his brother all of a sudden.

"It hurt quite enough the times we have died thanks. Why do you ask?" he asked warily, and Dean looked at him thoughtfully.

"Just curious." He said, a strange glint in his eyes as he continued to pace closer to his brother.

"Dean, what's going on?" Sam asked sharply, preparing to smack his brother if it stopped him from getting any closer, because he was beginning to feel intimidated by his brother, who effectively had him pinned against the wall.

"I'm just making conversation Sam. Being polite." He said, grinning evilly, and Sam knew in an instant as he beheld the smug, arrogant and malicious grin on his face.

This wasn't Dean.

"Who are you?" he demanded angrily, and Dean grinned maniacally.

"Guess." He purred, advancing on Sam once more, who took his gun from his belt and fired a bullet right into him, not even flinching from the fact that he had just shot his brother.

Or at least someone who looked like him.

Dean looked down at the hole, and smiled at Sam mockingly.

"Did you think that would work, you cock sucking little gnat?" he asked derisively, and a horrible suspicion came to his mind.

No one talked down to them like that. No one except...

"You're not Dean." Sam said, realisation filling him as he realised just what he was dealing with.

"Correct! Give the boy a prize! In fact, here it is now!" Dean hissed, and Sam roared in pain, as suddenly a wicked looking knife was plunged into his gut with venomous delight, puncturing right through his belly button as he pushed it in deep and far.

Sam gave a pained gasp as Dean turned it within the wound gleefully, Sam grunting with pain as he did so. He gagged, and he could feel blood rushing up into his mouth as the wound took hold. Dean had just stabbed him. His big brother had just stabbed him.

Sam gave a surprised moan in the back of his throat as he staggered back against the wall, his heart pounding hard. He gave a weak grunt, as he looked down at his stomach, and he could see blood rushing from the wound, trickling down his legs and onto the floor, and the patch of blood was covering his entire stomach by now. He looked at his brother with disgusted, angry eyes, his mind working overtime as he figured out exactly how this killer was.

Dean smiled, and threw Sam over the room, crashing him onto the bed, the wound aggravating his stomach further, making Sam scream in pain as he landed, and Dean prowled towards him slowly, grinning in evil, malicious delight. He then seized the knife, and once more twisted it in Sam's gut, and Sam grunted in pain, gasping weakly every time Dean stopped for a break, all the while pulling at Dean's hand, trying to free himself from the attack. He had been stabbed. He had to get to Dean, the real Dean, warn him...

"Poor little Sam. You know, you and your brother cost me everything. Seems only fair I do it to you." Dean mused, digging the blade in harder.

Sam was giving shuddering gasps of pain as he did so, he could feel his warm blood soaking his jeans, the bottom of his shirt, his bedspread as his wound flooded blood out of it. He was shaking weakly, shivering with the loss of blood, he knew his skin must be going pure white as he twitched on the bed. Dean once more dug the blade in, and Sam gave grunting, pained noises in the back of his throat as he did it.

Where was the real Dean? Was he alright? Was he even alive? Had he been killed? He wanted his brother, his proper brother, not this imposter. He wanted Dean, just like in Cold Oak. He was about to die, he wanted his brother one last time, to hear Dean's voice, to see his face, even though it would kill him to see the inevitable pain in his eyes.

Sam was giving shuddering breaths, trying to get air into his mouth, trying valiantly to stay alive, but he knew it was useless. He was dying, basically dead already. Dean once more twisted the knife, and he gave a keening moan as he did so, gulping for air and for life, grunting in awful pain as Dean twirled it around once more, twisting it further into his stomach. Sam was hyperventilating, and Dean smiled down at him, his hand seizing his neck and lifting him up to face him. Sam felt a trickle of warm blood run down from the corner of his mouth as he did so.

"Goodbye Sam." He said sinisterly, and Sam knew what was going to come next.

"No, please..." he pleaded weakly, his hands covered in his own blood as he valiantly tried to hold his life in his failing body.

He was giving shuddering gasps as Dean assumed his real form, proving Sam right. It could only have been him. Dean. He wanted Dean, he wanted Dean to hold him to him, tell him it was going to be alright, tell him he would be fine, calling him Sammy one last time.

"No, don't!" Sam pleaded, his body shuddering as more blood flowed out of him into the bed.

"Oh yes. But hang on." He said maliciously, and dug the knife even further into his body, and Sam was shaking, gulping for air, his body convulsing while he grunted in pain, his eyes closed in a grimace.

Then his killed gave one last smug smile.

"Please! No!" he begged, but then his killer jerked his neck, there was a loud, final snap, and with that, Sam Winchester was dead.

XX

The man stood, looking proudly at the body on the bed. Revenge was so very sweet, he thought ecstatically as he looked at Sam's body.

The knife was still sticking out of his stomach, and Sam's bloodstained hands were holding it, as he had died in the act of trying to pull it out. Blood had pooled out from the wound, dying Sam's shirt to just under his abs, the red stain discolouring the light blue stripy shirt. Blood had also soaked the top of his jeans, and a circular pool of blood had spread onto the bedspread. His skin was pure white, his hair a pooled mess around his head. And his face was priceless, his mouth open in a silent gasp of pain, his eyes blank, unfocused and unseeing, staring off into nothing, his head gazing up at the ceiling at an unnatural angle, a result of the shattered neck he had given him.

So many years he had waited, and now he had killed Sam.

And that was just the beginning of his revenge.

He smiled, and in a blink he was at a payphone.

"Hello, police? I would like to report a terrible murder." He said, smug with victory.

Sam was dead at last. And soon, Dean would follow. But not before he'd extracted every inch of pain possible out of the filthy little cretin first.

XX

Dean had everything they needed for a boys night in, and had even hired the last two Batman films. Bobby had shot him a reproving look when he had picked up Dark Knight, knowing full well he only rented it to scare his brother with the Joker. Smiling, Dean hoisted the bags and entered the room.

Where he promptly dropped them as he beheld the scene.

"No..." Dean pleaded desperately, and rushed to his brother's bed.

Sam was lying there, a knife in his stomach. Blood had pooled all around it, staining his shirt and jeans, blemishing the bedspread.

"Sammy..." Dean pleaded urgently, feeling desperately for a pulse.

He found none.

"No, Sammy..." he begged, taking his brother's white face in his hands, turning Sam to look at him as tears developed in his eyes, and Bobby flickered to life beside him.

"Oh god..." the ghost breathed in devastated horror.

Dean paid no attention, staring intently at his little brother, his open, unseeing eyes, and the awful truth dawned on him.

"No...god no, Sam, wake up this isn't funny!" Dean shouted, but then he felt a shiver of sick revulsion as Sam's limp head bent nearly over backwards, a result of having its support destroyed, and Dean laid his brother's head gently back onto the pillow, not willing to admit the truth.

"Sammy, wake up! Come on, this wound isn't even that bad, wake up!" Dean begged, checking the wound on his stomach, knowing it was futile but not willing to admit it.

"Dean, I'm so sorry, but he's..." Bobby said, his own voice choked and shaking.

"NO! He isn't dead!" Dean howled as he beheld his little brother's body.

Dean panted urgently, his hands covered in Sam's blood as he once more looked desperately at his little brother's face.

"No...no...no...Sammy..." Dean whispered softly, stroking his brother's soft hair as he sat on the bed beside him, guilt, horror, grief and terror filling him as he did so.

"Dean..." Bobby said, but Dean ignored him, smoothing his brother's hair, his gaze fixated on his little brother, who was so still...so horribly still.

"Sammy...come on. It's my job to look after you remember, to look after my pain in the ass baby brother. I know I sucked at it for a while, but, come back, I'm getting better, it's my job to look after you..." he begged tightly, tears in his eyes and voice, but Sam was unresponsive.

Sam was gone. His little brother was gone. The reason he kept going was gone.

His baby brother was dead.

"Sammy. Wake up, you can't let something like this get to you!" Dean implored, ignoring the fact that his brother's neck was shattered, hoping beyond hope that Sam would come back somehow anyway.

"Dean..." Bobby said, his own voice husky with shock and loss.

Sam's head lolled helplessly as Dean moved his body, and in a fury, Dean extracted the knife, surprisingly gentle considering how he felt, and tossed it to the floor. He was wheezing, his breath coming un unsteady gasps, panting in fear and in loss, and with his bloodstained fingers, he shook as he closed his brother's eyes, unable to look at their open, glassy, horrified expression any longer.

"Sam. Sam. Sammy!" Dean yelled urgently, but Sam didn't wake.

Dean shook his head, angrily denying what he was seeing, the fact that his little brother was gone. He saw the blood, the broken neck, but he couldn't admit Sam was gone. Sam was dead. He couldn't be, but he was.

Sam was dead.

Despair ripped through Dean, his body shaking as he looked at his little brother, unable to do anything about the obvious truth before him and despising that fact.

"Nonononono..." he whispered, desperate for any sign, but there were none to be had.

Hopelessness filled Dean. Sam was gone, and there was nothing he could do. No get out of heaven free card this time. He had lost him. He had lost his baby brother. Sam was gone. He had failed again, failed in his basic mission 'protect Sammy'. He felt sickened with himself. He had left Sam, and Sam had been murdered.

"No. No! Sammy!" Dean yelled again, but once again to no avail.

Sam was gone. Despair, hopelessness, self loathing, anger, grief, Dean was a myriad of emotions as he picked his brother up, hugging him tightly to him, leaning his brother's head on his shoulder and stroking his hair.

"I'm sorry Sam. I didn't protect you well enough, didn't look after you. You're my baby brother, and I let you down. I'm so sorry Sammy. Don't die, not because of me. What am I meant to do huh? It's my job to look after my pain in the ass baby brother. Don't you dare be dead, don't you dare be gone. I need you. Come on Sammy. We'll fix you, you'll be as good as new. Sam," he pleaded, his voice full of tears, which were also streaming down his face, "Sam. Sammy!" Dean yelled, holding his brother close to him, not caring about anyone, anything, not caring about Bobby desperately trying to talk to him, the fact that he was covered in Sam's blood, the fact that some son of a bitch had just murdered his little brother. All he cared about was Sam, and he was rocking him, clasping his brother's head to his neck, tears streaming from his eyes as the inevitable truth sunk in.

Sam was dead. He was gone.

And this time, he wasn't coming back.

Dean held his dead brother tightly, lovingly, feeling the warmth go from Sam's skin as his body got colder and colder, too cold. He rocked him gently, muttering to him as he did so, his bloodied hands running through Sam's hair, tears pouring down his face, devastated loss filling his entire being.

"Sam." He wailed softly, sobbing as he did so, but his brother, his face buried in Dean's neck, made no movement at all.

He was truly gone.

Sam was dead.

Sam was dead.

Sam was dead.

The line kept repeating in his head, over and over as he held his bloodied, broken and cold brother to him, rocking him gently, as if he were rocking him to sleep, his hand tangled in Sam's hair as his tears ran down his face and onto Sam's neck.

Sam was dead, gone forever, he had lost him. Sam was dead. Sam was dead!

"SAMMY!"

XX

The police arrived a while later, barging down the door.

"No! Leave him alone!" Dean snapped as the coroners came to try and take Sam from him.

"Sir, be reasonable..." one said, and Dean glowered at the man, still holding his brother tightly to him.

"My brother is dead! How can you ask me to be reasonable when the only family I have left is dead in my arms!" Dean raged, and the coroners backed off slightly, seeing that even brute force wouldn't manage to prise Sam from his brother's grip.

Sam was still held tightly in his arms, as if by hugging him to him Dean could resurrect him. But it hadn't worked. Dean looked at his brother, his tears blurring his vision as he did so. His brother was gone. He was all alone. All alone.

"Sammy..." he whispered desperately, his brother still held to him, but he knew it was no use.

Sam was gone. His brother was gone forever.

"Sir, please..." the other coroner said in a gentler tone, and Dean gently lowered his little brother to the bed, and allowed himself to be pulled away from him, but Dean's eyes never left his little brother, unmoving on the bed, as though waiting for any sign that his brother was still alive, but as before none came.

"I want to go with him!" Dean cried as the coroners lifted Sam onto the trolley, but the coroners shook their head.

"I'm sorry sir, but that isn't the way it works." One said sadly, giving him an understanding glance.

"No, you don't understand, he's my little brother, he needs me." Dean said desperately, but they shook their heads, and Dean watched, quivering in fear, loss and revulsion, as the coroner zipped up the body bag containing his little brother, a silent sound, so why did it sound like an iron gate slamming shut?

And Dean felt an awful sort of finality, a realisation that he didn't want to be here, didn't want to live, not without his brother, and the zip shutting had been the final straw, it had snapped Dean's own desire, will and power to live. He would go with Sam, one way or another.

"Sammy..." Dean whispered, as the coroners gave him a terse nod, and Dean felt the last little vestige of his world collapse as they wheeled his brother's dead body from the room.

"Sir? Are you Dean Winchester?" a policeman asked worriedly, and Dean glowered at him but nodded.

"Yeah. I want to go with my brother. Can I?" he demanded, but the man shook his head.

"I'm afraid not sir. We sent a preliminary copy of the prints on the weapon to the lab. They came up with a match." He explained, and Dean snarled at him, flexing his hand as if he wanted to go for his gun.

"And that stops me going with my little brother how?" he demanded furiously.

"Because sir, you need to come with me." The policeman said, taking a step towards him, and Dean shook his head.

"No I don't, I need to go with Sam, he..." Dean protested, but the policeman shook his head.

"You can't sir. Because you are under arrest. For the murder of Sam Winchester."

**Well, I officially feel awful!**

**I feel so bad, I've killed Sammy. Please dont hate me, i hate myself enough right now  
**

**Well here we are with another new story, and as you can see, things are already very grave indeed. Sam is dead, and Dean is under arrest for his murder. Where do we go from here?  
**

**Who was Sam's true murderer? What does he have planned for Dean? What new evils can befall a man who has lost everything? All will be revealed in later chapters.  
**

**Anyway, this is the start of a new story, I feel bloody awful but I hope to cheer you up with this news, we have two old friends returning in the upcoming chapters, and an old 'friend' of Dean's too!  
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**I hope I did Dean's reaction well, i tried to base it on Sam's death in season two, but i dont know if i did it enough justice, so please tell me what you think when you read and review! And please dont hate me too much! Read and review and hopefully it will be updated tomorrow (as I have escaped gardening this week, the weather sucks and what's more, its their 25th wedding anniversary tomorrow)  
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**Until next time please read and review and dont hate me!  
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	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural**

Sundered Veil

Bobby watched in horror as a devastated and disbelieving Dean was led from the motel room. No, Dean hadn't done this, it was quite obvious to anyone with eyes that Dean couldn't have done this, he was heartbroken, there was no way in hell that he could have murdered Sam. Dean didn't even protest as he was led outside, and of course, that meant Bobby was left behind.

Bobby sat down on the bed, feeling older than he had ever felt in his life or in his death. Sam was gone. Sam was dead. He couldn't believe it. The sweet innocent kid, the one who kept Dean going, the one who always tried to help people and always tried to atone when he made a mess, was dead. He couldn't believe it. Sam had survived death so many times before, and this time, he was suddenly just...gone. He had survived losing his family, losing his brother, the Apocalypse, Eve and was doing pretty well at surviving the Leviathans and they were talking about the guy who had taken the devil and the highest ranking angel down to hell. He had done so much, and now he was suddenly dead, ruthlessly murdered by some unknown party.

Bobby shook his head. It was like Dean was already dead. He had been at Cold Oak when Sam had first been killed, but this was different somehow. It was like when he had died, Sam had taken part of Dean along with him, that Dean was just waiting to die. Dean had lost all fight, all belief now that his brother was gone.

And to top matters off, he had been arrested for the murder of his little brother. This wasn't the Dean he knew. Yeah, he could mope and feel sorry for himself, blame himself for everything, have impossible double standards, and basically act like no one but him had feelings or a crappy life, but now Dean was like an android. He had given up. Surrendered. The loss of his baby brother had finally put him over the edge, and it was like now he was just waiting to join Sam. Which, Bobby had a nasty feeling, that if given a chance he would probably take.

No, he wouldn't allow it. Dean was a fighter. Yeah he had taken more knocks than anyone in the world, other than his brother. But Dean would usually want to find who hurt his brother, but this time it seemed like he had no intention of doing such a thing. He had to fix that, help Dean. After all, he was all Dean had left now.

Bobby looked miserably at the blood on the bed next to him. He couldn't believe that Sam was gone. He wondered vaguely what Sam would do. Would he move on into heaven, like Bobby was meant to have done? Or would he keep himself around as a ghost to keep an eye on his brother? Bobby frowned. Either way, it was a no win situation. If he went on, Dean would be even more devastated, being split by death from his brother. But if he stayed, he could wind up hurting Sam, after all, Dean hadn't been very accommodating when he found out Bobby had stayed around as a ghost, and he sincerely doubted he would let it go just because Sam was his brother.

Either way, the situation stunk. Bobby wondered briefly if he would see Sam anywhere around, bound to something like he was, or see him on his way into the next life.

"Sam?" Bobby called hopefully, but received no response, not that he had expected to receive one anyway.

Sam was gone, and was most likely in heaven, reuniting with his mother, his father (that would be a happy reunion right enough), Ellen, Jo, Rufus, Jess...he would be meeting up with everyone that he had lost, everyone that he missed, and would finally be getting some well deserved rest.

"You sleep tight Sam. You sleep tight now." Bobby said, hating the moisture on his cheeks. After all, how could a ghost cry?

But looking at the bloodstain on the bedspread, it was incredibly difficult not to do so.

XX

Marion Muriel Martin looked at the case that was on his desk, seeing his name in bold print, and as always, cursed his mother, who he had always thought was a few sticks short of a bundle, for giving him this name.

One Dean Winchester had been brought in, accused of killing his little brother Sam. It had apparently been quite a grisly murder. The younger one had been stabbed in the gut, allowed to bleed mostly to death, before his killer had finished him off by brutally snapping his neck.

Marion frowned as he looked at the guy they had in the interview room, the main suspect for the murder. His prints were all over the murder weapon, he was covered in his brother's blood, and an eyewitness had put Dean entering the scene of the crime just before Sam must have been killed despite his protestations that he only came back ten minutes later. It was an open and shut case, so why did Marion think that there was something that they weren't seeing?

Even just by studying the guy, he could tell that he was devastated, heartbroken by the loss of his brother, and as a precaution he wrote a note indicating that under no circumstances should the kid be left unsupervised, or even worse, in possession with anything that could conceivably be made into a weapon, he looked like that if he were given a sharp knife, he would immediately slit his own throat.

He had seen this sort of behaviour before, usually on those who had lost their partners after being with them for a good many years, been a constant presence in their life. Admittedly he had never seen such behaviour from brothers before, but he supposed there was a first time for everything. Now to deal with the part that he hated, interrogating the main suspect when they happened to be the deceased's next of kin and were clearly devastated by their loss.

He entered the room, and Dean didn't even look up, he just stared stonily at the top of the table, not reacting to anything. Marion took a look at him sadly. Yeah, you didn't get that look if you were a murderer. You got that look when you lost everything you had, when the last good thing had just been taken from you.

"Dean?" Marion asked, sitting down opposite him, and Dean tore his eyes away from the tabletop and looked at him sadly, as his deputy, Charlie, entered, glowering at Dean.

Marion could already tell that this was going to go badly. Charlie was rather belligerent when it came to murderers. While he did get results, his methods, which included pushing all of the suspect's buttons, usually caused the suspect to quickly lose their temper and say things he later made them regret. And considering his own brother had been killed in mysterious circumstances years before, this case in particular was going to bring out the worst in his deputy.

"Yeah." Dean said, his voice listless, and Marion could tell that he didn't care either way what happened in this interview.

"We have all the evidence we need to book you for murdering your brother. Want to tell us why you did it?" Charlie asked sharply, and Marion rolled his eyes while Dean shot him a glare, but the look on his face indicated that he really couldn't be bothered.

"I didn't kill my brother." He said dully.

"Really? You're covered in his blood, an eyewitness say you going in, and your fingerprints are on the knife. That's you pretty much incriminated. If you tell us why you did it, if you cooperate, you might be able to reduce the amount of time to spend in prison." Charlie growled, and Marion glowered at him.

"Charlie, back down, he's just lost his brother." He scolded, and Charlie snorted.

"Yeah, and he's doing the devastated act really well when it's perfectly obvious that he was the one who did it." He said scathingly, glowering at Dean.

Well, it took less time than Marion thought it would. Dean reached up and grabbed his younger deputy by the scruff of his neck, glowering at him.

"My brother is dead. I adored my little brother. He was the best thing I had in my life, and now he's gone. Now, you can think what you want. But I sure as hell didn't murder him. Recently, I've hated myself every time I have hit him, regretted it for ages. And my kid brother...because he never bore a grudge, not even against the ones who deserve it most...he never rubbed it in, never made me feel guilty. I would never kill my little brother. He used to beg me to do it, and I never would. So don't you dare sit there and tell me I killed my little brother. Because he was the best thing I had left in my life, and now he's gone, and I would never hurt him. Got it?" Dean growled bitterly, and Charlie gave him a scared look, freed himself from Dean's grip, and positively fled from the room.

"My apologies, he tends to get wound up when siblings are killed, he lost his own one a few years back." Marion said apologetically, and Dean glowered at him.

"I lost mine a few hours ago." He said, his voice once again lifeless and he leaned back tiredly, and Marion could see the pain that was in his eyes, and his heart went out to him.

Before him was a man who life had screwed up one too many times, and it looked as though he just wanted to close his eyes and never wake up. Poor thing.

"Look, it's obvious that you're devastated. And while you are the main suspect, we are pursuing other lines of enquiry. But I need you to tell me what happened." Marion said, and Dean recounted the story, heading from the motel room to the Chinese and coming back to find his brother dead.

"I didn't kill my brother." Dean said flatly, and Marion nodded.

"I can see that you believe that. Right, I'll need to go back and write these up. We'll talk later." Marion said, leaving the room, to see Dean just hang his head and he looked at the boy worriedly.

Charlie was glowering at the door, and was telling the other officers that he was convinced of Dean's guilt. But something about Dean made Marion unsure. While the evidence all pointed towards Dean, he always had been wary of open and shut cases. And this seemed a little too late. And he suspected that Dean's story of being at the Chinese could easily be verified, which would blow a rather large hole in this case. No, something was off. Had the tip off been a hoax?

"Alright fellas, I know you think that this is an open and shut case, but I'm beginning to think it isn't, and I'm not having people saying that Brandon police don't do their job properly. So, check out the Chinese, get security footage, I have a feeling there's more to this case then meets the eye. Hop to it people!" he barked, and they all went about their business, Charlie glowering at the room Dean was in while he did so.

Vowing to keep his eye on his deputy, Marion began writing up the reports.

XX

Dean was sitting in the bland interview room. He couldn't get the image of Sam's body out of his head, the open, glassy eyes, a result of the viciously snapped neck. Dean fought down a wave of repulsion and grief, trying not to think about that. He wanted to find the person who did this. He wanted to find the one who had taken his baby brother from him, taken the last good thing in his life from him, and make him pay.

He knew he had Bobby too, but the flask had been left in the room, and Dean was truly alone. Sam wouldn't come and free him this time. He was gone. His little brother was gone, and would now be stretched out on some morgue table...

Dean shivered. He had to find who had done this, make them pay, make what they had done to Walt and Roy seem like a walk in the park. He wanted to know which bastard had murdered his baby brother. He had failed to protect him, the least he could do was avenge him.

But, he was also being charged for Sam's murder. He couldn't explain it. Sure he was covered in his brother's blood and had touched the knife, but the perpetrator's prints should have been on it somewhere too. He wanted to know who killed Sam, make them pay.

But he also wanted to stop. Sam was gone, dead forever this time round. He didn't want to go on anymore. And he was too damn tired to bother about what Sam would have wanted, he just wanted Sam.

Sam, who he had stabbed so viciously, plunging the knife into his gut, recalling his brother's expression as he did so, savouring the look of betrayed surprise.

Dean shook his head. He hadn't hurt Sam, he wasn't the one who had killed him. He hadn't even been there, he had walked in and found Sam on the bed, already dead. He had had nothing to do with it. But how did he know what had happened? Was his imagination playing tricks on him? Or...well or what?

He knew he wouldn't kill his little brother. He would never kill Sammy, his Sammy.

Ah, a nasty little voice said, but you nearly did before, quite recently actually. Remember Dillimore? Remember Palomino Creek? You almost killed poor defenceless Sammy there, the voice taunted, and Dean put a hand to his head, rubbing his temples and closing his eyes to block out the images of Sam's betrayed expression.

No. He loved his brother. More than anything. And he would rather die than go on a world without him in it. He wouldn't kill him, he couldn't.

But, hadn't he just seen himself stabbing his little brother. That image had to have come from somewhere.

"Sammy!" he moaned sadly, wishing his brother was with him now.

XX

Bobby was pacing up and down the room, going out of his mind. He was trapped here, with no way to Dean, and no way to see Sam. Sam was gone, which meant there was no chance of freeing Dean. Well of course not, it was Sam's murder that Dean had been arrested for. But Bobby knew the truth. Dean would never kill Sammy, and he suspected even controlled by monsters he would still never kill his little brother. Dean needed an ally. But trapped as he was within the room with the flask, he had no way of being that ally. There had to be something he could do, some way to help Dean, to let him know he wasn't alone.

Bobby frowned to himself. He could smuggle himself out next time someone opened the door!

No that wouldn't work, there were no guarantees anyone remotely useful would come back, and then, knowing his luck, he would probably wind up touring the country in some old dear's Winnebago.

He could haunt the police station until they let Dean out!

No, that wouldn't work either, as he was stuck here, and projection would only get him so far, besides, he had no way to reinforce his demands.

He could exonerate Dean!

No, that wouldn't work either, due to the small, niggling detail of that he was dead, and hence a rather unreliable witness, especially when he was technically bound to the accused.

"Balls!" Bobby yelled, the mirror developing a crack due to his anger.

He had to calm down. He couldn't help Dean by becoming a vengeful spirit. What could he do? Projection was relatively limited. While theoretically he could travel vast distances, he wasn't able to do it for long, and he didn't want to get Dean into more trouble. It was also more difficult to do anything when he was projecting. But there had to be something he could do.

Bobby looked outside, seeing the sign that said 'welcome to Brandon', and then it hit him.

Brandon was a small town, just along from Sioux Falls, where he had used to live. And Jody Mills, the sheriff would still be in the town. What if he projected to her, and enlisted her help? Yeah she might freak out, think she was going insane or not be able to see her, but it might get him somewhere with helping Dean.

Bobby began to concentrate. This had to work.

It had to.

XX

Bobby concentrated, filling his head with thoughts of Jody, willing himself to be where she was. He thought of everything, her kindness, her tepid belief in the supernatural, her pretty good looks, her incidental discovery of how to hurt Leviathans, all of it, and he focused on her with all of his might.

And when he opened her eyes, he found himself in her bathroom. He smiled wistfully, remembering that before he had gone and gotten himself shot in the head, he had hoped that the two of them might become something someday, closer than friends. The room was neat, tiled and with fluffy towels on rails on the wall. Bobby turned around, and then went pale, even for a ghost as he saw Jody.

She was singing to herself in the shower, lathering herself, and Bobby immediately regretted the fact that he was dead, and the fact that he had died before getting to know her better. She was beautiful. But, he was old school when it came to such things, and politely turned his head and stood facing the door.

"Sorry." He said sheepishly, knowing that if he still had blood he would blush, and would also take off his cap.

Then there was a startled scream from behind him, making him spin around, thinking she was being attacked, but to his great surprise, found her staring at him, water streaming from her body and hair as she turned off the shower.

"Oh my god! Bobby?" she demanded hysterically, throwing her towel up in front of her to block his view.

"You can see me?" he asked in amazement, and she nodded weakly, her eyes wide and shocked, her skin pale.

"Yes I can see you! How the hell did you get in here? Wait a minute, Sam and Dean told me you were dead! Aren't you dead?" she demanded in a high voice, and he nodded ruefully.

"Yep, dead as a door nail. I'm a ghost." He said, and she looked a little faint, and he hastily made way for her as she came to sit on the toilet, towel wrapped around her, holding her head as though she had a migraine.

"You're a ghost." She repeated softly, and he nodded.

"Yeah. Sorry to scare you like that, I didn't think you'd be able to see me. I didn't mean to land in the bathroom by the way!" he hurried to assure her, "I am in no way a pervert ghost." he assured her hurriedly, and she looked sceptically up at him.

"You appear in my bathroom and you expect me to believe you aren't a pervert? How long have you been spying on me?" she demanded, outraged, and he shook his head hurriedly.

"No no! I'm not haunting you, I'm tied to my hip flask, which Dean has with him. I projected here." He explained, and she looked at him weakly.

"Where you found me naked in the shower and decided to go all peeping tom on me?" she asked, and he shook his head, patting the air to calm her.

"No, I didn't know you were in the shower, I just appeared here, I was looking for you. I need your help." He said, and Jody looked at him as if he were crazy, and she then nipped her leg, making Bobby roll his eyes.

"I'm not a dream. Or a nightmare before you come out with any smart comments." He said warningly, and she smiled a little.

"Alright...so you are dead?" she asked, and he nodded bashfully.

"Yeah sort of am. By the way, for the record, don't get shot in the head. Hurts like hell." He said, and she looked at him sympathetically.

"I can imagine. Alright, you, go downstairs, let me get dressed and I'll be right down." She said, and Bobby nodded, as she got to her feet, and opened the door for him.

"No need. See what I can do." He said with a grin, and he made himself intangible and floated down through the floorboards.

XX

A few minutes later, Bobby, who hadn't figured out how to make himself tangible again, was having fun sticking his hand through things down in the living room, chortling to himself as he did so. Funny what amused you when you were a ghost.

Jody eventually appeared, drying her hair, and she went straight to her drinks cabinet and poured herself a whisky.

"Do you?" she asked uncertainly, and he shook his head.

"Nah. That's one of the biggest bummers about being dead, you can't drink. Besides, I can't even get an impression of the taste, I can't figure out how to make myself solid again." He lamented, and she drained it in one, before sitting down and looking at him in amazed shock.

"So, you actually are dead?" she asked softly, and he nodded.

"Yeah. Dick Roman shot me in the head, and I told my reaper to go and stuff himself, I stayed behind to keep an eye on the boys." He explained, and her eyes widened in realisation.

"Well that makes sense. How did you get here?" she asked, clearly not sure whether or not he was indeed peeping in on her in private moments.

Bobby scowled at her, implying he was some dead pervert giving himself a ghostly jolly by spying on her when she was naked.

"I swear this is the first time I've been here since I was alive. I projected myself here. I had no clue you were in the shower, and take note that I did turn my back." He said, and she had to concede that point.

"I suppose so. But why did you project yourself here? Is your afterlife...lonely?" she asked, and he didn't quite know how to answer that.

He had Sam and Dean...well, he had Dean now, and that was all very well in good. But would he rather be up in heaven with his wife? He didn't regret his decision, but not having any ghost buddies did suck a little.

"That wasn't why I came. I need your help." He explained, and she looked at him curiously.

"How can I help a ghost?" she asked curiously, and he braced himself.

"Sam's...Sam's..." he stuttered, and she looked at him worriedly.

Damn it, he was a hunter. A ghost of a hunter anyway. He knew all about death, so why was it suddenly so hard to admit the truth about Sam? Sam was gone, he knew that, he was dead, and this time he wasn't coming back. He didn't think. So why couldn't he admit the truth? Maybe he was more like Dean than he thought he was, not wanting to admit that someone he loved was dead.

"Bobby?" she asked gently, and he took a deep breath and started again.

"Sam's...dead." he said softly.

There, he had said it. So why did it suddenly feel that his heart had just dropped out of him? Admitting it, to someone other than himself and Dean, made it solid, irreversible. Sam was actually dead.

Jody looked up at him in shock, and her lip trembled, tears coming into her eyes. Sam couldn't be dead. She hated to admit it, but he was her favourite out of the two. Sam was the sweeter one, the more open of the two, his concern and love for his big brother was obvious, and he had the more relaxed personality, the easier to get along with. Dean was colder, more self absorbed and self pitying, which she found slightly annoying. Bobby had let slip that Lucifer was prattling in Sam's head twenty four seven, and it seemed to her that while both their lives sucked, Sam had much more reason to complain than Dean did, yet didn't.

Sam just couldn't be dead.

"How?" she asked tearfully, irritably wiping her eyes.

"Murdered. Stabbed...and then they...snapped his neck for good measure." Bobby said darkly, looking slightly sick as he remembered Sam's bloody body, and those empty, staring eyes, and shuddered.

Jody whimpered slightly, allowing tears to fall down her face. Who could have done that to Sam?

"Who did it?" she asked, and he frowned.

"Well that's the thing. The police think it was Dean." He said, and she immediately knew why he wanted her help.

Yeah, fine, she liked Sam more, but she was still very fond of Dean. She could only imagine what he must be going through. His last family, the last thing in his life, was now gone, his little brother, who he had sworn to protect, murdered right under his very nose. The poor kid must hate himself, and want nothing more than to curl up and die.

"Dean wouldn't murder Sam." She said firmly, and he nodded.

"You know that and I know that. Problem is, there's no way to prove it, Dean's their main and only suspect, and I can't figure what it might have been that killed Sam. Look Jody, Dean just needs a friend. He's only the next town over. Can you help?" he asked, and she nodded bravely.

Of course she would help. She couldn't let Dean languish in jail for a murder he would never commit. Besides, she knew the sheriff in Brandon, Marion, he and she went way back. He might even appreciate a little help.

"Good. Right, he's at the police station, but could you swing by the motel first and pick up my flask? Dean dropped it when...when he found Sam, and I'd rather be with him and not have to project, it takes it out of you." He said, and she got to her feet, collecting things she would need.

"Course. I'll meet you at the motel, in about an hour." She said, and he nodded, smiling at her.

"I knew you'd come through. You're a star. See you in a bit!" he said, and flickered away.

Jody couldn't believe it. A ghost of a man she could have grown to love. Sam dead. And Dean arrested for his murder. She didn't have any clue all those years ago when she had first gotten mixed up with Bobby, Sam and Dean how much her life would change. Now, she was learning more and more about the supernatural, and of her three links to it, she only had one left technically.

She had to go and help Dean. Picking up her badge and the box she had assembled, she headed for her car.

XX

Sam growled in exasperation as he traipsed through the police station. He wanted to talk to Dean. He could see his brother every time he entered the room he was in, sitting there, looking lost and alone, and he wanted nothing more than to reach out to his brother, let him know he was there, that he was alright...

Well he wasn't alright. For god's sakes he was dead. He'd been stabbed in the gut, allowed to bleed to death, and then his neck had been snapped for good measure. Wanker. And to top it off, he was now in some drab, grey world, where he felt relatively solid, but couldn't affect anything, and it was pissing him off.

Sam glowered at Charlie, the belligerent officer who believed Dean had murdered him as he passed. Of course Dean hadn't murdered him. Dean had had two perfect opportunities to kill him in the last few months and he hadn't taken either. There was no way Dean would kill him now.

Besides, it was obvious to anyone with eyes how devastated Dean was. Sam knew his brother. He knew he wasn't coping at all. He knew that as soon as he got a chance, he would try and take it, try to join his brother.

Sam didn't know how he felt about that. He knew full well that without him, Dean wouldn't see any point in going on anymore. Screw Cas, he'd betrayed them, and had gotten them into this mess. Screw the world, it wasn't up to them to save it from the Leviathans. Sam knew those thoughts would be going through his head, and that he would seriously want to join Sam.

And Sam wanted his brother. But given half a chance, he'd rather join Dean rather than the other way around.

Sam fought down another wave of frustration. He didn't even know what he was. He hadn't seen any ghosts, and he couldn't do any of the stuff Bobby could do, so he figured he wasn't a ghost. Yet he was still here.

After he had died, he had come out of his body a while after, just as Dean had arrived, and he had witnessed his brother's breakdown as he beheld his baby brother. Sam had screamed, jumped up and down, hollered, but it quickly became obvious that nothing Sam did was making any difference. And what was more, he hadn't even been able to see Bobby, so he was still completely clueless, and he had no way of contacting his big brother.

Sam hated what he had done to him, hated causing Dean so much pain. He wanted to talk to him, to let him know he was there, but he hadn't been able to, and he had watched as the stupid police led his big brother away, arrested for his murder. As if that would ever happen.

Sam blinked away tears. He wanted to talk to his brother, to make him feel better, but he couldn't affect anything, no matter how much he had tried. He hated having done this to Dean, left him all alone. It was all his fault, if he'd been better, stronger, he wouldn't now be dead, and he would be with his brother, watching movies and drinking beer, his brother wouldn't be on the verge of slitting his own throat and he wouldn't be lying cold and dead on a slab in the morgue.

Sam angrily forced away his tears. He had to find some way to help Dean, to talk to him. He hadn't murdered him. An old foe of theirs had, someone who had made a lot of Sam's gratitude to Castiel vanish as soon as he'd been stabbed. It was bad enough dealing with him once before, and now he was back, and had killed Sam.

He was dead. He knew that. His life was over, gone, and there was nothing to be done about it. Sam would never again hang out with his brother, squabble over music, feel Dean hug him whenever he was scared, wind Dean up, talk to him again...

And then there was Sam's other fear. Other than the dreadful fear of being separated from his brother, he was afraid he wouldn't get in to heaven. He was afraid, terrified, that he was going back to the cage. He didn't want to go back to the cage, he didn't want to be where Lucifer and Michael were, he didn't want to be tortured by them for the rest of eternity.

He was terrified, more scared than he had ever been. He had lost his brother just as much as Dean had lost him. He would never be with Dean again, at least not until Dean died, and they both got to heaven. But Sam wasn't even sure he was going to heaven. After all he and Dean had done, was there any guarantee that he wasn't going to hell. He didn't want to go to hell, not back to Lucifer. He didn't want to go back there, and above all else he didn't want to go back alone. He knew it was selfish and he hated himself even more for it, but he wanted Dean to go with him wherever he went, he knew he could cope with hell, but only if he had his big brother.

He wanted Dean. He wanted to help Dean, to free him from the police, let him know it wasn't his fault. But he also wanted to protect Dean from his killer, and he wanted to talk to his brother, let him know everything was alright.

And he wasn't going to leave until he did.

"It's time to go Sam." A voice came from behind him, and Sam spun around in shock.

A beautiful woman with black hair to her shoulders was looking at him, and he knew instantly who she must be.

"You're Tessa aren't you?" he asked softly, and she nodded.

She was his reaper.

"You've stayed here too long already. You're dead Sam, and this time you aren't coming back. Come on." She said gently, extending her hand to him, but he shook his head stubbornly.

"No." He said firmly, though his eyes were scared.

She sighed in exasperation.

"You're as bad as Dean. He didn't want to come either. Look Sam, you're dead, just like he was. What is it with you Winchesters? You die just like everyone else you know." She said tiredly, and he looked pleadingly at her.

"I know we do. But I want to make sure he's alright. He isn't coping, I want to help him." He said, and she did have to admit, his puppy dog eyes were quite cute.

"Sam, what do you intend to do? You're dead. You have a massive rupture in your skin, your stomach and also, there's a nick in your spinal cord. You have virtually no blood left in your body, and what's more, your neck is totally shattered, broken into twelve tiny little bits. You...are...dead!" she intoned, and he glowered at her, feeling slightly sick.

"Alright, you know what? You could really do with working on your bedside manner. Telling someone not long dead exactly what happened to them isn't going to win you a good performance review." He said coldly, and she looked at him sympathetically.

"Look Sam, I know you think I'm being harsh, but this is my job. You're dead, you're in the void between life and death. You can't help Dean." She said sadly, and Sam looked to where his brother was, fist clenching in anger and frustration at his situation.

"No. I'm not going. I want to help him, make sure he's alright. I'll get the hang on this. He did. I will too." He vowed, and she smiled a little.

"Yeah, he did. But Sam...it's over for you. Do you really want to throw away your afterlife just to spend a bit longer with your brother?" she asked pointedly, and Sam nodded.

"I'm not leaving him alone. He needs help. He needs me. And I'm going to help him, whatever it takes." He promised, and Tessa sighed.

"You don't seem to grasp this. There's nothing you can do." She said in a bored voice.

"I'll think of something. Please Tessa. You know Dean, and I think you kinda like him. Do it for him. Let me stay, don't reap me yet. I want to help him, and I'll do whatever I can to do it. Just please, don't reap me yet." He pleaded, puppy eyes imploring.

She sighed. She was going to regret this, and she'd be laughed at during the Halloween Ball again, but she could live with that, she usually got lucky anyway, which offset any insults she might receive.

"Alright. Alright. I can see there's no way I'm going to get you to leave Dean behind until you at least try and help him. So...I'll give you a day. But tomorrow, I will come back and I will reap you." She promised, her voice neutral.

"Alright, deal. Thanks." He said in relief, and she decided to give him a little help.

After all, he was quite sweet and cute, and like he said, she did sort of have a thing for his brother. Not that she would admit it.

"Alright. You're like a spirit. You can affect things if you think hard enough. The longer you're around, the stronger you'll become." She said, as though commenting on the weather.

"Really?" Sam asked excitedly, and she nodded.

"Yes. Remember...tomorrow." she said, and vanished.

Now he had a start. He was like a spirit, which meant he could potentially help Dean. He might be able to contact Dean, or at least contact someone. He had to warn his big brother as to who was after him, help him, protect him, help him move on, whichever direction it was he chose to move in.

Sam entered the room where his brother had tears in his eyes and was shivering, looking sadly at the table, and Sam touched Dean's shoulder gently.

"I'm here big brother. I'm not leaving you. Not now, not ever. Now it's my turn to look after my pain in the ass big brother." He said fondly, tears in his eyes as he remembered Dean's pleading to his dead body.

He had held him in the end, just like he had wanted him to. Dean hadn't let him down. And he wasn't going to let him down either.

"I'm right here Dean. I'm not leaving you." He repeated, and wished more than anything that his brother could see him and feel his presence.

XX

Jody had arrived in Brandon, and had picked up the flask, so she now had Bobby riding shotgun in her jeep.

"You sure the sheriff won't mind?" he asked, and she shook her head.

"No, Marion and I are old friends." She explained, and Bobby snorted.

"A sheriff called Marion? What's her husbands name, Robin?" he asked, and she smiled slightly.

"Nope. Because Marion is a guy." She said and Bobby laughed a little.

"Did his mother hate him?" he asked, and she shrugged.

"He certainly seems to think so." She said as they entered the main boulevard, and she could see the police station up ahead.

She had to get in and see Dean. Maybe she could at least get Marion to allow Dean to see his brother one last time, he couldn't just sit in the station waiting for the police to do their jobs. He had to be going insane with grief and fear, now that he was finally all alone. The poor kid had lost so many, and now he had lost the last person in his life, the one who made it worth living. He would want to see Sam, to spend time with him, and she would try and get him that at least. After all, it would be pretty obvious to anyone that Dean wouldn't be able to kill Sam, he must be so devastated by his loss.

She would help him, she would make sure of it.

Nodding to Bobby, she picked up her box and headed into the police station.

XX

"Sammy...please come back Sammy..." Dean pleaded quietly in the interview room, not knowing that his brother's spirit was right beside him, wishing he would let Dean know somehow.

He remembered twisting the knife in Sam's gut, the exclamation of pain Sam gave as he did so, remembered as his brother groaned and writhed in pain, his eyes unfocused with the pain, screaming as Dean twisted it further.

"Sam..." Dean moaned, trying to banish the images from his mind.

Had he really done that? Were the police right? Had he murdered his baby brother? He wasn't so sure anymore.

"Sam..." he wailed again.

Sam looked at his brother sadly, wanting to know how he could help his big brother, who was clearly on the verge of a total breakdown.

"I'm right here Dean, right beside you...just like always." He whispered, wishing his brother could hear him, or feel him as he stroked his hand lightly through Dean's hair to try to calm him, but it was to no avail.

There was then a commotion from outside, and Sam looked to the door, as did Dean.

"I'll check it out." Sam said, even though Dean couldn't hear him, and strolled through.

And he felt his heart lift with joy at the sight of Jody Mills, Bobby's sheriff friend.

"Jody." He breathed in relief.

She would help Dean, he was sure of it. She would make sure that this ridiculous charge was dropped, and that Dean was exonerated for his murder.

But that didn't help Dean. He was still in danger from his killer, and he still wasn't sure what he wanted to do. Did he want Dean to kill himself and join him? When he thought about it, he knew the answer was no. He wanted his brother to try and live his life, to try and make something for himself, to try to live past the pain he knew he was feeling.

But what if he went to hell? He didn't want to go back to hell, he wouldn't, he would rather, well not die seeing as he'd done that already, but he would do anything if it spared him from going back into the cage.

Or, what if he did what Bobby did, and stayed behind as a ghost? But then he thought of how mad Dean had been that Bobby had done that. What if he was mad at Sam too? What if he didn't want him around?

What was he going to do?

He had to talk to Dean, somehow, anyhow. But how could he?

Then it dawned on him, what he'd done all those years ago when he'd nearly lost Dean in a car crash.

The spirit board. He needed the spirit board.

He looked at Jody, who had set her box down and was chatting to the officers, though sending concerned looks in the direction of the room Dean was in. Everyone was distracted. Now was his chance.

He peered into Jody's box, and smiled as he saw paper right on top, with a marker beside it. He could contact Dean, he didn't need the spirit board.

Ten minutes later, Sam was exhausted. He must be too new a spirit, he couldn't keep holding the pen for too long, it drained him far too much, the effort it took to write. Once more, it dawned on him how much it sucked being dead.

But he had managed a note, and now he was exhausted. Feeling that his head was drooping tiredly, he headed to the room to be with Dean, wanting nothing more than to sleep for a week he was so tired.

But as he entered, he saw how sad and lonely and scared Dean was, and Sam sat loyally beside him, hoping his brother would somehow know he was there, and derive strength from that.

"I'm right here Dean." He said tiredly, looking at his exhausted and heartbroken big brother.

"Please come back Sammy..." Dean said in return, wishing more than anything that his wish would be granted.

XX

The greetings done, Jody was told to wait for Marion, and she headed back to her box to try and find an old book of Marion's she had borrowed last time she had seen him. As she got to her box, she stopped in shock, and looked up at Bobby in surprise, and he gaped at her, also in shock.

The top piece of paper on her notepad had been written on, and not by anyone in the room. The first line had been crossed out but there rest was a small letter to her.

_Dear Jody,_

_Please bring Dean a spirit board, so I can talk to him, and to you too._

_Love, Sam_

"That can't be..." Bobby said in astounded surprise.

"But it is..." she said in shock, and they looked at each other, and spoke at the same time.

"Sam?"

**Here we are with the next chapter!**

**Jody is here to lend a hand, which can only be good. Poor Dean, he is misery the poor thing. But maybe with that note, he might cheer up a little bit. But what is happening to him? Why is he remembering Sam's murder?  
**

**And Sam is still around, and trying valiantly to help his big brother. It was quite hard to write his bit, I didnt know how he'd deal with being dead, but I figured with Dean in so much trouble, he wouldnt be having a pity party and would be trying to help him.  
**

**Who did murder Sam? An old enemy certainly, but who?  
**

**Hope you liked the presence of Tessa, it dawned on me earlier that she could easily make an appearance in this story. Another past character, aside from the villain, will appear later on too.  
**

**Oh, and kudos if you figure out why Brandon's sheriff is called what he is called.  
**

**Anyway, please read, and as always review! You know I like to wake up to lots of emails, so please, make my day and put me in an even better mood before I go and meet my friend!  
**

**Bye for now!  
**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural**

Sundered Veil

Bobby and Jody looked around, as if they were both expecting Sam to appear suddenly out of thin air.

"Does this mean he's a ghost too?" Jody asked quietly so the other cops wouldn't hear, but Bobby shook his head.

"No. He must be in the world between life and death, he can't become a ghost or move on yet. Means the kid must have ducked his reaper too. And if he's in the world in between, that means you and me and Dean, as two of us are alive and one of us is dead, can't see Sam, we might be able to feel his presence, he might be able to influence things, but he can't be seen, we could be standing in him right now and we wouldn't be any the wiser. It's like...he's separated from us, like on a stage, he's behind the scenes and we're on the stage." He explained, and she nodded in understanding, and was just about to ask something else when a voice called her.

"Jody! How the hell are you?" Marion called jovially as he came up to her, shaking her hand and wrapping her in a one armed hug.

Bobby looked at the sheriff. A small man with dark skin, he had a shock of white hair and bright, intelligent eyes. It was clear that the entire station respected him, and Bobby could automatically tell that he was the sort of person they wanted on Dean's case.

"Doing fine, you?" she asked, and he nodded fairly.

"Can't complain. So what brings you here? Think I need a little help? I always managed to beat you at police college." He said with a smile, and she shot him a dirty look.

"You did no such thing. No, I heard about the murder, the young man who looks like he was killed by his brother." She said, and his eyes widened in realisation.

"Yeah, terrible business. Poor thing was stabbed, allowed to bleed mostly to death and then had his neck snapped for good measure. His brother's the main suspect, but I've seen how devastated he is, I don't think he did it. Problem is, all the evidence is pointing in his direction. And he didn't help himself earlier, Charlie was baiting him and he snapped, and what's more, I'm beginning to think he should be put on suicide watch." Marion said darkly, looking at the room where Dean was being held.

Jody looked at the room and sighed.

"Look Marion, I know Dean. And I know how much he loves...loved Sam. I know it might not look like that, but he would never kill his brother, I'm sure of it. So this has to be a mistake." She said, and Marion shrugged as he sat on his desk.

"Usually I would agree with you, it's far too simple. But if it is a mistake and the poor kid is being framed for his brother's murder, why would they be doing it? Do the Winchesters have any enemies?" he asked, and both Bobby and Jody's breath caught in their throats, exchanging dark looks with each other.

The police here knew their proper names. They knew the Winchesters were still alive, after a massive manhunt was started for the two brothers, and they then faked their Leviathans' deaths in order to escape. But now, the police had unintentionally discovered who the boys were, and if anything flagged up, the boys, well Dean, would be arrested for the crimes their Leviathans had perpetrated, along with any other outstanding cases they might be appearing in.

And Bobby knew that there was another worry. With Marion's men asking querying the brothers in the system, Dillimore might flag up as well, and then the fat really would be in the fire, especially if they got their hands on the video footage of Dean almost killing Sam, it would look like he had tried once before and had failed so decided to finish the job.

"Let's just say they piss off some powerful people." Jody said diplomatically, and Marion looked at her suspiciously, and then nodded.

"I can see that I'm not going to get any more information than that. I take it you want to see him?" he asked, and she nodded.

"Alright, interview room one, I'm going to see what my boys have come up with." He said and headed across the room, while Bobby looked at Jody in alarm.

"Balls! If they find out that they're the 'same' ones that committed all those murders their Leviathans pulled off, we'll never get Dean out of here. And, there's something you sorta need to know." He said sheepishly.

"The Leviathans stuff should be fine, at least until it attracts FBI attention, and then we'll be neck deep in shit. What do I need to know?" she asked, and he looked at her guiltily.

"Dean has sort of tried to kill Sam before, and there's proof of it, and there's a good chance it might come up." He admitted nervously.

Jody looked at him furiously.

"What? Dean actually tried to kill Sam? What, why? And didn't you think I might want to know this beforehand?" she hissed, silently but violently, so as to avoid drawing attention to the fact that she was, to everyone else at least, yelling at thin air.

"Well, yeah, and Sam said it wasn't really Dean's fault that he did, but that's just because the kid's nice and kind that way. Dean was really drunk and vented all his frustrations on Sam, nearly killed him, it's why Dean's been on a total overprotective oestrogen fest recently, he was furious with himself when Sam got admitted to the mental ward. He didn't mean it, he wanted to take it out on himself, but that's pretty hard to do, and poor Sam just got in the way. And I didn't think it would matter, I didn't think they'd given their real names." He said bashfully, and she glared at him.

"If you weren't already dead, I would kill you. Right. Do we tell Dean about the message from Sam?" she asked, and Bobby shook his head.

"Nah, not yet, the kid has enough problems. We'll wait until we get the spirit board and then tell him." He said, and she nodded before heading for the interview room.

XX

Dean ground his eyes with his hands. Sam, bleeding on the bed, begging him not to twist the knife any further, but he did it anyway, enjoying the pain he was inflicting on his baby brother, and Dean moaned a little as he saw his brother thrash in unbearable pain due to what he was doing. He was doing it again. He was hurting Sam. But why was he hurting Sam? He didn't want to hurt Sam, Sam was his brother. But, he also wanted Sam to die, and now he finally had, he was free to live his life in peace.

Dean shook his head urgently. No no no. That wasn't him. He didn't want Sam dead, he wanted Sam alive, with him, where he belonged, not as a cold body on some morgue slab. Where had that thought come from? What was happening to him?

Sam looked at Dean in concern, wishing he could reach out and comfort his big brother. Something was wrong with Dean, other than the fact that his brother was dead, which he did have to admit was seriously lousy. It had sucked when he had lost Dean, and he could imagine how Dean must be feeling, but knowing him his brother would be feeling a hell of a lot worse.

"Hang in there Dean. Jody will get you out." He promised, wishing it was him who would be able to help his brother, and turned away from his pained brother, hating himself.

The door opened to reveal Jody, and to Sam's delight, Bobby.

"Bobby!" Sam exclaimed in relief, but the ghost didn't hear him.

"What are you deaf now as well as dead? And blind too?" Sam demanded irritably, thinking Bobby was ignoring him.

But no matter what Sam did, shouting, whistling, jumping up and down, insulting, swearing, Bobby didn't respond. For some reason, he couldn't see him.

"Balls!" Sam shouted, and then he immediately realised what he had said.

"Oh great, I'm dead and I'm turning into Bobby! How's that for extra crappy? Dean!" Sam wailed plaintively, as he sat and looked miserably at his brother, feeling slightly sorry for himself, but that feeling was soon replaced as he saw the heartbroken look on Dean's face as Jody gently pulled his hands away from it.

"Oh sweetie, I'm so sorry." She said sadly and wrapped Dean in a hug, and he eagerly returned it.

It had been so long since anyone other than Sam had shown him such affection, and he eagerly lapped it up. Still didn't change how horrible he felt.

"Jody, what are you doing here?" he asked in surprise as she pulled away from him.

"I'm here to help you obviously." She said, and he looked up at her with hope in her eyes.

"You don't think I did it do you?" he asked uncertainly, and she nodded.

"Of course you didn't do it." She said, sitting opposite him.

"Wait a minute, how could you have done it? You were with me the whole time." Bobby said irritably, and Dean looked up at him uncertainly.

"Was I? That's just it, I told the police I was, but that little gnaff deputy started accusing me of murdering Sammy...and, now I can't actually remember. Did we go to the Chinese?" he asked desperately, and Bobby looked at Jody in alarm.

"Dean, are you alright?" he asked, and Jody glared at him pointedly.

"Of course he isn't alright, he's just lost his brother." She said tartly, and Bobby glowered at her.

"I meant other than that, he isn't looking so good." He said stubbornly.

Sam rolled his eyes. Somehow he didn't think the two of them squabbling like a married couple was going to help Dean any. And he had to admit, he was worried about his brother too, he looked very nervous and jumpy, his skin was pale and his eyes wide and round.

"I don't know, I can't remember anything from when we left the room." Dean said, and Jody looked at him sympathetically.

"It's probably just your mind playing tricks on you Dean. Bobby knows you left the room, he was with you." She explained, but Dean shook his head.

"Then why am I remembering Sam's death? I remember stabbing him, twisting the knife...how can I remember it if I wasn't actually there?" he asked weakly, and Jody looked to Bobby, who shrugged.

Sam however was beginning to get worried. He knew that look, knew what Dean was going through. Living an event that he later found out not to be true, he had tackled the exact same thing with his hallucinations. But why was Dean having hallucinations? Dean had definitely left the room, and he knew it wasn't his Dean that had murdered him.

"Douchebag." Sam growled in reference to his true killer.

"Dean, listen to me. I was with you all the time, it wasn't you who murdered Sam, you got back and found his body." Bobby said, but Dean shook his head, tears in his eyes as he looked at Jody and Bobby helplessly.

"How do you know? And if that's true, why do i remember everything that happened to Sam?" he pleaded, and Jody beckoned her head to Bobby and the two went and stood in the corner, while Sam crouched down beside Dean, looking intently into his brother's eyes.

"Dean, I don't know if you can hear me, but it wasn't you who killed me. You were just the one who found me, you had nothing to do with it ok? All you did was find me and hold me, just like I wanted. You didn't kill me. Fight this Dean." He urged softly, reaching his hand up as if to take Dean's cheek and force him to look at him.

Dean closed his eyes, tears falling from them, moaning slightly.

"Sammy..." he whispered, and Sam wished he could do more, he felt so helpless watching his brother struggle.

"Could Dean have done it?" Jody asked in a quiet voice, and Bobby looked at her furiously.

"You said yourself there was no way he could murder Sam!" he hissed, and she nodded.

"I know that, but I'm wanting to know if there's a way that Dean could have been made to murder Sam, but still think he was at the Chinese? Could it have affected you too?" she asked, and Bobby calmed down a little, after all she wasn't implying that he had killed Sam she was just asking if it was possible.

"Maybe, but it would take someone with a hell of a lot of power." He mused, and she looked back at Dean worriedly, who was now holding his head as though he had a debilitating headache.

"Big mouths?" she asked, but Bobby shook his head.

"Nah, they don't have that sort of power, their brains are their power, their strength and everything, nothing like what it would take to make Dean think he had murdered Sam when he was with me." Bobby said, and she looked at him intently.

"Bobby, we need to get him the spirit board. If," she said, and dropped her voice further, "Sam is around, he can calm Dean down, tell him he didn't do it, then we can get him out of this mess." She said, and he nodded in agreement.

"Agreed. Sam you better still be around here boy." He muttered.

Dean, who was breathing heavily and rubbing his head, didn't hear him, but Sam did.

"Well of course I am! I'm hardly going to abandon my big brother when he's losing his marbles am I? Dean, come on, fight this, it isn't real, whatever you're seeing isn't real." He whispered, hoping beyond hope that Dean could hear him.

Dean couldn't though. He was back in the room, Sam's dead body before him, blood soaking his hands as he tried futilely to save his brother's life.

"Sammy..." he moaned, and then he heard a dark snigger from behind him, and he burled around.

Alastair, the head torturer of Hell was standing there, smiling maliciously.

"_Little Sam's with me now Dean_." He said in that nasal sounding voice of his.

"No, he can't be, you're dead, he killed you!" he protested, and Alastair gave that annoying laugh of his, looking smug.

"_Not anymore Dean. When you murdered baby Sammy so viciously, everyone he ever killed was freed, we're all back. I've got him on the rack right now Dean, and he's begging me to kill him. He keeps asking why you did it to him, why you killed him so viciously. That takes a lot of hate Dean, to do what you did._" He said, crouching in front of Dean and patting his face fondly.

"_After all, you always were my favourite little torturer, you knocked sweet Meg off her perch too I was so fond of you_." He said whimsically, and Dean shook his head.

"No, you're not real, Sam's in heaven, not hell." He protested, and Alastair looked at him pityingly.

"_No Dean. Someone who was killed that brutally would never get into heaven. You ruined your brother's chances of getting there, and now he's here with me. If you listen, you can hear him scream_!" he said with relish, and he could Sam screaming in god awful pain, crying out his name.

"No, Alastair, please, leave him alone, take me back!" Dean pleaded, looking at someone only he could see.

"Who's Alastair?" Jody asked as she bent down in front of Dean, trying to snap him back to reality.

"He was a demon, but he was killed years ago! Dean, he isn't there!" Bobby shouted, and Jody forced Dean to look at her.

"Dean, he's not there, Alastair's dead." She said firmly, but Dean shook his head.

"Sammy, he has Sammy, it's all my fault..." he mumbled, and she shook her head.

"No Dean, he isn't in hell, he's, well, anywhere but there." She said lamely, shrugging at Bobby.

Bobby was looking at Dean in alarm. Now Dean was the one hallucinating, seeing things that weren't there. Was it possible that Sam's death had driven him over the edge? He couldn't watch Dean's mental state slowly decline to the point it almost killed him as he had Sam, he wouldn't put himself through that again.

Dean seemed calm again, but he was clearly terrified, seeing things that weren't there, and Sam knew exactly who's fault it was that they were.

"I'm going to fucking kill him." He growled, seeing the state that had been made of his big brother.

"Alright, Dean, I'm going out to talk to Marion okay? I'll be back in a bit." Jody said kindly, and he nodded as she and Bobby left the room.

Sam saw his brother, weak and shaking, and wished he could do something, anything to convince him. Dean was going through the exact same thing as he had, but the problem was Dean didn't have a brother anymore to help him.

"Oh god Sam, I'm so sorry..." Dean said with a sob, and Sam forced back his own tears as he saw the defeated mess his brother had been made into.

XX

"I don't see how Dean's thinking he killed Sam." Bobby said grimly as they left the room, and Jody looked at him sharply.

"Illogical or not, he thinks he did it Bobby, and Dean's breaking down in there." She said, and Bobby nodded.

"We're no strangers to it. Sam dealt with the same thing until Cas fixed him, seeing hallucinations, not knowing what was real until he finally broke, almost killed the poor kid. And now Dean has it too, I just wish I knew how he had it!" he said irritably, and suddenly sparks erupted from a fax machine, making the other policemen shout in surprise and sent someone running for a fire extinguisher.

"Oops. Sorry." He said sheepishly, and she looked at him in surprise.

"That was you? Great, I've joined forces with a pyromaniac ghost." She said grumpily, as Marion came over.

"What the hell happened there? Alright, it seems like Dean was at the Chinese, but, he could easily have gone back and killed Sam and still been there in time to collect his food and go back again, I'm having my people investigate." He said sorrowfully, and Jody looked at him, accusation in her eyes.

"You said you didn't believe he did it." She reminded him, and he nodded.

"I know I did Jody, and I stand by that, the kid's too heartbroken too have killed his brother, but Charlie is digging up information around town, and I've got to say, it doesn't look good for Dean. Charlie is going to try and pin this on him." Marion explained, and she looked at him in exasperation.

"You're his boss! Put him in his place!" she urged, and she smiled grimly.

"I have, but he crawls back out quicker than he goes into it. This case makes him a demon, he's a total nightmare. But I'll warn him to back off until we have more concrete proof." He said, and Jody nodded.

"Thank you." She said, glowering at the back of Charlie's head.

Affected powerfully by this sort of case or not, she wouldn't allow any deputy of hers to basically dictate the entire process and proclaim themselves, jury, judge and executioner.

"Problem is, he always looks at these open and shut cases as a godsend rather than as something to be wary of. I agree, the entire thing is too neat. You really have no idea if anyone could be setting Dean up?" Marion asked, and Bobby answered, though he couldn't see him.

"Well anyone of our enemies, old and new, but making him think he did it and hallucinate, that speaks of a hell of a lot of power. Could be djinn, but then there would be other signs." He mused.

"None," she said, ignoring Bobby, "look, he's not really doing so good. Have you got any sedatives?" she asked, and Marion was about to answer when Charlie came over, looking sour.

"We do, but he isn't going to get any. His act can only last for so long. He killed his little brother, and now he's going to pay. A sedative will give him leniency, make people think he's insane, then he won't get what he deserves. No, he can do without." He said snidely, and Jody glowered at him.

"Look Deputy, we aren't the Gestapo. Dean could very well need a sedative and I don't care if giving him a sedative blows this case out of the water, we will treat him right. Dean isn't doing well, and I'm exploring other options alright? And if you ever talk to a ranking officer like that again, I will make sure you never act in law enforcement in this state again. Clear?" she snapped, and Charlie nodded meekly, before slinking off.

"Thank you for that, saved me the hassle!" Marion said cheerfully, shaking his head at his deputy's impatience.

"Sorry if I stepped on your toes." She said uncertainly, but he waved her off.

"Don't worry, he always loses himself in this sort of thing, and you dealt with it. Even if he's the worst scum on earth, we are still treating any prisoner with due care and respect. Charlie needed a little reminder." He said happily.

"You know, you're quite attractive when you're angry." Bobby mused, and Jody went pink, and then pointedly ignored him, though was pleased by the remark even if it was from a dead guy.

"So, any luck with Dean? And why do you need the sedatives? He didn't mention any mental problems." He said worriedly, and she looked uncertain.

"They're...quite recent, he's just adjusting to having them. Sam used to have problems, and normally they can keep a lid on it, but with him having lost his brother, it could lead to complications. And, in regards to Dean, he's confused and hurting. I don't suppose you'll let me take something in to him?" she asked hopefully, and he looked at Dean's room worriedly, fearing the kid was on the edge of a mental breakdown.

"Poor kid. What do you want to take into him? Because I'm not sure about anything that could potentially be used to harm himself." He said with a frown, and she shook her head.

"Nothing like that. Him and Sam are very, well, spiritual, and I was wondering if I could bring him his spirit board, maybe try and soothe him a bit?" she asked, and Marion smiled a little.

"Going to try and contact the dead are we?" Marion asked, and she and Bobby smiled at each other.

"Yes." She said bravely, and he laughed, but nodded.

"Sure, you can bring it in, provided you keep an eye on him, I don't want him smashing his own head in with it." He said, and she nodded.

"Weill do. Where's their car?" she asked, and he pointed outside the building.

"In the lock up round back. Let me know when you're about to do it, I could do with a laugh." He said with a chortle as he walked off.

"Great, we can get the spirit board but he'll get in the way. If Sam's around..." Bobby said, but Jody shook her head.

"If he is around, he'll have to talk to us anyway. Marion's a good man, he won't interfere." She assured him, and Bobby looked at her sceptically.

"He might be a good man, but he might soil himself if you reveal that the things that go bump in the night actually exist." He said, and she rolled her eyes.

It was a risk they would have to take.

"We don't have a choice. Come on, we need to get back to Dean asap, I'm seriously worried about him." She said, heading for the door.

"You aren't the only one." Bobby grumbled, and after taking a last look at Dean, he followed her outside.

XX

Dean held his head, trying to sort out his thoughts. He definitely went to the Chinese. But then how did he remember killing Sam? Had he doubled back and killed his little brother? No, he wouldn't do that, he wouldn't hurt Sam! But, some part of him might have wanted to, the dark, primal part that had taken over in Dillimore. Had it taken hold here, and forced him to kill Sam? Or was all this just a horrible nightmare? He wouldn't murder Sam, he wouldn't hurt Sam...but then there was the fact that he could quite clearly remember killing him, ramming the knife into his gut. What was happening to him? Had he killed Sam?

No, he hadn't, he'd been out with Bobby, Bobby had said he had been with him, but...what if Bobby was in on it? Had Bobby made him murder Sam, possessed him somehow, despite his tattoo? Had he become a vengeful spirit, and did he blame Sam for his death and want to kill him? No, Bobby loved Sam, he wouldn't...but then Dean loved Sam more than anything, and he kept trying to kill him, maybe this time he had just succeeded.

"What's happening to me?" he asked in a scared voice.

Sam looked at his brother, his heart ripping in two as he did so. He knew that scared look, the hopeless feeling when you were all alone and your world was collapsing around you, when you didn't know if what was happening was real or an illusion.

"I didn't kill Sam..." Dean intoned, and Sam shook his head.

"Of course you didn't Dean! You wouldn't do that, you love me too much, you have to snap out of this and see that!" he implored, to no effect.

"But Bobby...no Bobby wouldn't kill Sammy either...no, we didn't kill Sam. We wouldn't, we couldn't...Sammy, did I kill you?" Dean begged in a tiny voice, and Sam shook his head, and wished to hell Jody would hurry up with that spirit board.

"No Dean, please hear me! You didn't kill me!" Sam cried.

"_Of course you did Dean, and I'm eternally grateful. I've got my bitch back._" A gloating, female voice said, and Dean's mouth snarled in anger as he realised who it was.

Ruby.

"You." He growled at her and she gave him a smug smile and a cheerful wave as she approached from the other side of the room.

"_Me. God, you really hang on to things when your brother's done wrong don't you? Never let him live it down do you? He slept with me years ago, and I can tell you were still pissed with him for that, the wanton venom in you when you twisted that knife deeper into him time and again. _

_You, you expect Sam to move on and let you away with stuff when you do wrong as soon as you do it. He doesn't get to be angry at you, you're the big brother, you never make a mistake. But Sam, no, he can never do wrong, not without you rubbing his face in it time and again, blame him for everything wrong in your life. _

_Even your precious Cas gets let away with things. Sam does wrong, he gets beat to a pulp, but if your boyfriend does it, all you do is slap his wrists and send him to the corner. Not Sam. You blame him for everything wrong in your life, don't you_?" she purred, and Dean shook his head.

"No, that isn't true, I don't blame him." He protested feebly, and she laughed.

"_Yeah you do Dean. You're the one who kicked the entire process off, getting into a position where we could start the Apocalypse, and then you obliged by breaking the first seal. But no, it was all Sam's fault because he killed Lilith. Big brother Dean didn't do anything wrong, no, it was all baby Sammy. All his fault. And with what you did to him, the way you so viciously shattered his neck, the way you twisted the knife, it's pretty clear to me that you still hate your brother._" She hissed with malicious delight.

"No, I don't, I love Sam." He bit out, and she snorted.

"_Really? Yet as soon as you came back, you were all pissy because you were, you wanted to blame him, it was his fault you were resurrected. If it had been, what would you have done? Raged at him for doing the exact same thing you'd have done? _

_You were all ready and willing to have a massive shouting match with Sam for being human enough to want you back, and you thought it was his fault. Most people would be delighted to get set free from Hell, we certainly are, but no, not Dean, who never does anything wrong. You wanted to blame Sam and I can only imagine your disappointment when you found out it wasn't him._" She taunted, and Dean shook his head violently.

"No, it wasn't like that..."

"_One of the first things out of your mouth was 'what did you do', like your dad's would have been. The two of you became so like dearest daddy back then, I bet he was so proud. And you had precious Cas. You always wondered what drove Sam to me Dean, turned him against you. It was you dickhead! _

_You got all wrapped up in your issues, your problems, you didn't see what was wrong with your brother. He missed you! He was human enough to want you back and you wanted to condemn him for that. And then, you take up with Castiel, getting involved in all his little angel games, your precious Cas, and you started taking his side more and more, and pushing poor Sammy out into the cold. It was so easy to lure Sam to me! He was hurting, his brother didn't want him anymore, and here was nice, pretty Ruby, offering him comfort. You're an ass Dean, but I gotta hand it to you, you made my life so much easier_!" she cackled, and Dean shook his head, putting his hands over his ears, and she laughed even harder at that.

"_What's the matter Dean? Suddenly love him again? You detested him earlier, you stabbed and twisted and twisted and twisted, poor Sam must have been wondering what he had done to warrant such hate from his darling big brother! Imagine how hurt he must feel, knowing that it was things that he'd done years ago, that he foolishly thought he'd paid his penance for, that you killed him for. After all, you can't just drop it, you need to rub it in how much he screwed up, time and again, even years later you still can't forgive him! Yet you get all mad when he doesn't forgive you after a couple of weeks! Part of him is probably glad you murdered him so viciously, it lets him know your true feelings! _

_You killed him for every screwup, everything you think he's done wrong, me, your mom, your dad, all of it is his fault, and you blamed it all on him! And poor Sammy didn't even know what it was he had done wrong, to learn his brother hated him that much still, even though he only died to save the world and stop Lucifer, who you helped set loose, but no, it was all Sam's fault! All Sam! Dying still wasn't good enough to wipe off the stain of having done wrong, not in the eyes of his perfect big brother, the man who never makes a mistake! Poor Sammy, how sad he must feel knowing his brother still hates him for every little mistake he ever made, he only died to try to make it up to you Dean. To show you he was sorry, to show you he wanted to make it up to you, to clear up his mess to make you proud of him, but you still weren't happy. You still hated him, even though he could do nothing else to show how sorry he was. Poor Sammy. But listen! If you strain hard enough, you can hear Sammy crying his eyes out now he knows how much his brother loathed him_!" she crowed, and Dean could hear the sounds of his brother sobbing his heart out despite his attempts to drown it out.

"No, it isn't true, Sammy made mistakes but so did I, he made up for everything he did wrong, more than I did, I didn't, I didn't hate him!" He wailed desperately, and she laughed as Sam's crying got louder.

"_And now I have my bitch back, I'm going to make sure he satisfies me well and good, then back to the rack he goes! Thanks for sending him back to me Dean. Bet that's what you wanted all along when you murdered him so viciously, to try and break him so I wouldn't take him back. No Dean. Unlike you, I won't push him away when he needs me most. My little bitch is back, thanks again_!"

"Leave him alone you sick bitch!" Dean roared just as Jody, Bobby and Marion entered.

"Dean, deep breaths, there's no one there." Jody said, and Sam sighed with relief as he saw Dean begin to relax.

"I didn't hate Sam, I did forgive him, I didn't want him dead, I didn't want him in hell, I didn't kill him!" he moaned, and Marion put his hand on his shoulder.

"Dean, what are you talking about? Can you hear me son?" he asked, and he nodded weakly, and Jody passed him his water.

"Dean, who did you see?" Bobby asked, but then Dean glowered at Bobby hatefully, eyes full of mistrust.

"Was it you? Did you kill Sam?" he demanded, and Marion looked at Jody in shock.

"Who's he talking to now?" he asked in worry, and she shook her head, silently begging Dean to stop.

"What? No of course not ya edjit, I was with you, and I didn't kill him, and neither did you!" Bobby protested grumpily.

"Dean, who were you talking to when we came in?" Jody asked softly, her hands on his face and he lookd at her with wet, terrified eyes.

"Ruby. She's got Sam back, she's hurting him." He mumbled.

"Who's Ruby?" Marion asked, and Bobby shook his head and looked sadly at Dean, patting his back.

"She was a demon, she got her claws into Sam because she knew Dean was going to die. Dean went off with Cas, Sam went off with her. She manipulated Sam into killing Lilith, and that set Lucifer free. She's dead too." Bobby said, hoping Dean would come back, be himself again.

"Ex girlfriend of Sam's. Big trouble." Jody said darkly, and Marion helped Dean take a drink.

"I need to call a doctor." He said, but Jody, Dean and Bobby all shook their heads.

"No, doctors eat people. And some kidnap Sam." He whispered, and Jody patted his cheek gently.

"No, please don't do it yet Marion. Look, we think using the spirit board might calm Dean down. Please let's give that a try first." She wheedled, and Marion looked pityingly at Dean, who was now quivering in fear and remorse, tears flooding down his face.

Poor kid was totally destroyed, and it looked like he was losing his grasp on reality very quickly now his brother was gone. He'd never seen it this bad before.

"Alright. But if he doesn't calm down, I'm going to call a doctor. And who does he intend to contact anyway? His brother? Jody...is that wise? The poor kid is nuts as it is, this might give him false hope." He said sadly, wanting nothing more than to let Dean sleep.

She gave him a small smile.

"With this pair, you might be surprised." She said with a wise smile, and Bobby nodded.

"Finally!" Sam exclaimed in exasperation as Marion set out the spirit board. He could talk to his brother, help him with what he was going through, protect him somehow. He had to. He couldn't watch what he knew would happen if Dean wasn't fixed soon, he couldn't watch Dean self destruct, he was too close to that as it was.

"Alright. Need me to chant anything?" Marion asked teasingly, though his concerned eyes didn't leave Dean.

"No. At least I don't think so." Jody said awkwardly.

"Dean, we think Sam is still around. Try and talk to him." Bobby said, and Dean shook his head as if to clear it, then focused on the spirit board.

"Sammy?" he asked hopefully, begging his brother for a message, for a sign, for reassurance, for anything, anything that would help, let him know he wasn't in hell.

And then, to Marion and Jody's great surprise, the counter moved without anyone touching it, pointing to 'yes'.

Dean almost cried in relief. Sam was here, Sam was still around, he was hiding from his reaper...but then a thought struck him. Why would Sam do that? Why wouldn't he go on to the rest he had more than earned and deserved?

"Ha, suck on that Swazye!" Sam crowed.

"What the hell?" Marion demanded weakly, as he saw the pointer move.

"Shoosh." Jody scolded, her eyes fixed on the scene.

Marion couldn't believe it. The pointer had moved on its own. There was a ghost present. Or something like that, and it must be Dean's brother.

"Alright, but I'm going to need a strong brandy when this is over, and an explanation." He said weakly, and Jody nodded absently.

"Why?" Dean asked his brother.

The pointer pointed to several letters in succession.

'**For you**'.

"Sammy..." Dean said softly. His brother was willing to say here, trapped, if it meant helping him, willing to risk everything for his big brother.

Sam looked at his brother, felt himself relaxing a little as he visibly saw Dean calm down. It was working.

"Are you ok?" Dean asked in a wavering voice, and Sam grinned.

'**Well of course I'm not ok, I'm dead aren't I? But aside from that, yeah, I'm fine**.'

"Thank god. Sammy...I have to know, was it me? Did I kill you?" Dean asked desperately, and Marion's ears perked up, looking intently. If this stuff was real, then he was all for it if it identified Sam's killer.

'**No. He made himself look like you**.'

"Shapeshifter?" Dean asked, becoming more lucid as time went on, and Marion was watching the exchange intently. There was clearly a hell of a lot more going on here than he had imagined. The supernatural had to exist. But that was a mind fuck to deal with later.

'**Worse. Wanker**.'

Dean smiled a little as he saw the insult, then his face transformed to a look of fury as it dawned on him what he meant. Out of every enemy they faced, only three things were called wankers: Crowley, their dead grandfather and angels.

"An angel?" Dean demanded, and Marion looked at Jody.

"An angel? An angel killed Sam? Aren't they meant to be god guys?" he asked, wondering just what the hell he was involved in.

'**Yes. A dead one too. One Cas set loose**.'

Marion's head was spinning, and he leaned against the wall, flabbergasted.

"Next time I see him, I'm going to rip his head off! Who? Wait...of course. There's only one it could be!" Dean yelled in realisation, and he and Bobby looked at each other furiously, just as Sam spelled it out.

'**Yeah. It was Zachariah**.'

The biggest pain in the ass angel of all, a smug, manipulative monster, arrogant and cruel, haughty and superior, Dean had never enjoyed killing anyone so much in his life when he killed Zachariah, for everything he had done, for all the hurt he had caused him and Sam. Bastard, and the bastard was back, alive because of Cas, and he had killed Sam.

"Son of a bitch."

'**He's after you too. That's why you're seeing things, don't believe them. I know you don't hate me, that all the stuff you're muttering isn't true. He's trying to drive you insane. Looks like the son of a bitch really bears a grudge**.'

Dean shook. That was the reason for the visions, Zach was planting them, torturing him, making him doubt everything. But even though he now had proof, he had a horrid feeling that Zach was still going to strip reality out from under him.

"Where is he? I want him dead." Dean snarled.

'**Don't know. Get a sigil on the wall in case he comes. Dean, Tessa only gave me till tomorrow**.'

Dean looked at the board in panic. No, he couldn't lose Sam, wouldn't.

"Just wait baby brother, and I'll come with you." He promised quietly, and the other three present all exchanged alarmed looks.

'**No Dean! I don't want you to die because of me. Please**.'

Dean looked at the board, and he could just imagine Sam's puppy dog eyes gazing up at him imploringly, begging him to concede.

"Sammy..." he said.

'**Please! You won't have to. I could stay...if you want me to**.'

Dean stared hard at the board. Sam was willing to become a ghost, not move on, stay here, all for his big brother.

'**But I don't want you to be mad at me, so I'll only do it if you want me to. Would you be mad**?'

Dean searched himself urgently, but couldn't find the answer.

"I don't know Sammy. I don't want to lose you, you know that. But as a ghost? I don't know if I'd want that. It's the same argument as it is with Bobby, what if you lose control? It'll be bad enough having to torch him, there's no way I can banish my baby brother. And I don't want you here because of me." He said sadly.

The pointer didn't move for a few minutes, as Sam wiped the tears from his eyes, feeling hurt and upset, on the verge of tears. His brother didn't want him to stick around, but he didn't want him to go either. What was he meant to do? Stay and be with Dean, but have Dean constantly criticise and worry, and be sad? Or go, and leave Dean, and leave his brother broken hearted and despondent?

It occurred to him just then, that he had actually wanted to stay as a ghost, to stay with his brother, to refuse to allow death to separate them, to continue as always. But for all the right reasons, and to try and spare himself more pain, and to try and give Sam peace and happiness, he didn't want Sam to stay. He wanted him to go, no matter how sad it would make him.

'**Ok. You don't want me to stay. I get it. I just, don't want you to be alone**.'

Dean saw the message, and he could just imagine the upset, hurt look that would be in his brother's eyes.

"Sammy, wait..." Dean said in the same tone he always used when he knew he had upset his brother.

'**It's ok, I understand. Stay strong Dean. Stay alive! Don't let him win, don't die because of me, promise me. It isn't real**.'

Dean fought back tears.

"Losing you is real enough." He said sadly.

'**I'm sorry**.'

Dean could imagine the soft sounding voice of his brother, the downcast eyes as if he'd done something wrong.

"No Sammy, it isn't your fault, okay?" Dean asked softly, and the pointer eventually moved.

'**Ok**.'

Dean looked at the board. His brother was still around, he wasn't gone yet. But he would have to go soon, and he would lose him all over again. But he knew now. Zachariah had killed him, and Dean was going to make the son of a bitch pay, no matter what it took.

And he was going to ignore the visions too. Sam said it wasn't him, it was Zach, and who else could he believe but the victim?

"Sammy..." he asked hesitantly, hoping the others would avert their eyes.

'**Yeah**?'

"I...I love you." He said weakly, his chick flick rule out of the window.

'**I love you too**.'

Dean fought down tears. They rarely said it, rarely admitted it. But after everything, the visions, Dean needed reassurance, needed to know, needed to hear it. And he knew Sam did too.

Sam. Who had been murdered by an angel who should be long dead. Sam, who never really blamed Dean for everything, who always forgave him no matter how much he screwed up, his baby brother, the bright spot in a life now completely dark.

A nasty little voice crept into his head.

Of course Sam would say you didn't kill him, he probably thought he deserved it, never being good enough for you, deserved to have you murder him so brutally. He didn't want to make you feel bad, despite everything you've done to him. And he's always thought he deserved to die, deserved to be unhappy because he always screwed up, deserved everything he got because everything was his fault. Sam would say he hadn't killed him, he was sweet like that. He wouldn't want Dean to feel bad for killing him, for ridding the world of what he would think would be an evil.

"No...I didn't kill him, Sam wouldn't lie, it wasn't me...he wasn't poison, he wasn't evil, he didn't deserve to die..." Dean said, and other three looked at each other anxiously, panicking.

"No, Dean, listen, you didn't kill me! Zachariah did! I didn't lie, it isn't real!" Sam yelled, feeling worse than useless as he knew he couldn't help his brother, and it was killing him, tears were running down his face as he saw Dean lose control.

And Dean remembered seizing Sam's neck in his hand, his brother's weak pleading, his desperate puppy dog eyes, begging him not to murder him...

And then he shattered Sam's neck and his brother was dead, gone forever, his eyes forever staring off into infinity.

Dean gave a scream of furious terror and remorse, and fell to the ground, the world going black as he did so.

**Aww poor Dean, I feel so bad! He's going totally crazy, he can't even believe his baby brother, and now he thinks he did murder Sam, and what's happened to him? Will he be alright and retain his sanity?**

**As you may have gathered from Ruby (second version by the way), I was venting a tad when I wrote her part, doyleshuny and I see eye to eye on Dean and would like to give him a kick in the ass.  
**

**So, our villain is revealed to be the worse douchebag of them all, Zachariah! That smug git is back, and has killed Sam, he is in for a world of pain...provided Dean isnt completely insane, the evil bastard is torturing him worse than Alastair could ever manage (also second version).I thought that after he was one of the most prolific and hated enemies he would make a fine villain for this story, and as you can see he's wreaked significant havoc.  
**

**And the hours are ticking down to Tessa's return...will Sam evade her forever? Will he stay or go? All will be revealed soon!  
**

**And Marion Muriel Martin is named so because of Kim Rhodes. I used to be forced to watch Suite Life by my sister before she went to school, and Kim Rhodes is in it and her boss' name was Marion Moseby, there was a character called Muriel (and I watched the Friends episode when Chandler's middle name is revealed yesterday), and her second name in the show was Martin, so there you are.  
**

**So what will happen next? Is Dean alright? Will he get revenge on Zachariah? How will poor Marion cope with the reveal of the supernatural? Will Sam evade Tess, or will he go with her? And will Zachariah win as one brother is dead and the other is losing control of his sanity?  
**

**Hopefully there'll be an update tomorrow, so until then, as always, please read and leave lots of reviews!  
**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural**

Sundered Veil

Sam looked at his brother as he lay on the ground, shaking violently, spasming as though being electrocuted. Now he knew how Dean must have felt, how scared he must have been how helpless when he had been going through the exact same thing with Sam. He couldn't do anything, he couldn't soothe his brother, tell him it wasn't real, he was stuck and unable to do anything.

Fortunately, Jody and Marion were on hand, and they were working to soothe him, both their faces drawn in concern.

"Any history of mental illness in the family?" Marion asked, trying to stop Dean shuddering.

"No, Sam had problems but they got rid of it, but now if this angel is causing all this then he's done something to help bring this on." Jody said in worry as Dean finally started to calm down.

Marion held Dean steady, and Dean finally stopped shuddering, and Sam and Bobby both breathed a sigh of relief as Dean opened his eyes groggily, looking around the room as if wondering how he had gotten onto the floor.

"You alright?" Jody asked softly, and he nodded meekly, sitting up.

"I saw what I did to Sam, when I snapped his neck, it was me, I couldn't cope with seeing it..." Dean said softly, and Jody shook her head urgently, while checking his temperature with the back of her hand.

"You didn't snap his neck! You didn't kill him, Zachariah did." She said, but Dean looked away from her.

"Sam would probably just say I hadn't killed him so I wouldn't feel bad." He moaned, and Sam looked at him in frustration.

"Dean! Come on! I told you it was Zachariah, so for once in your life listen to me you jerk! And besides, no matter how much I love you, if you had killed me, I think I might be a little bit pissed about it!" he yelled, but it was as always to no avail.

"That's balls and you know it." Bobby said irritably, and Marion's eyes flew up to him in shock, and he backed away from him, looking terrified.

"Wait, where did you come from?" he demanded, and Bobby, Dean and Jody all looked at each other in surprise.

"You can see me?" he asked in shock, and Marion nodded weakly.

"Hmm, must have been a bit more angry than I thought. Oops. Hi, I'm Bobby Singer, resident ghost." He said cheerfully, and Marion looked at Jody weakly as she helped him into the chair opposite Dean, who was looking as bad as Marion felt confused.

"Ghosts, spirits, angels...can someone please explain what's going on here?" he asked weakly, and the others looked at him pityingly.

XX

A few minutes later, both he and Dean were sitting over mugs of hot chocolate, with Jody and Bobby both flanking Dean to keep an eye on him as he once more held his head.

"Dean, you saw what Sam said, it wasn't you, it was Zachariah." Bobby said, but Dean shook his head.

"I know he said that, but how do I know it was really Sam? How do I know it wasn't Zach messing with my head? How do I even know you guys are real?" Dean asked weakly, and Jody looked at Bobby desperately.

"There has to be something we can do to help him!" she cried, and he shrugged.

"I don't know, Sam always basically just kept himself to himself when he was dealing with this sort of crap, I don't know how he did it." He said worriedly, and Marion looked at Dean, fixing him with his dark eyes.

"Dean, listen to me. I have no clue what the hell is going on here, about you suddenly going crazy, about ghosts and spirits, but it seems to me like the person on the other end of that spirit board cared about you a hell of a lot. He didn't want to go to heaven, just so he could stay here with you, his brother. And it seems to me like you knew he was upset when you said you didn't want him to stay. Something makes me think that this Zachariah guy can't fake that, that really was your brother. And he says you didn't do it. So, you didn't do it." He said, and Dean gave him a thankful nod.

"Thanks." He said in a weak voice, and then Marion looked pleadingly at Bobby.

"Alright, so I don't need much, but can I get a sort of cliff notes version of everything that's going on around here?" he asked, and Bobby chuckled.

"Alright. Well, the supernatural exists. Everything from fairies," he said, and Dean shot him a terrified glance and Sam rolled his eyes (just what Dean needs a reminder of something that scares the shit out of him, he thought bitterly), "all the way up to demons and angels, they all exist. Ghosts, vampires, werewolves, the whole kit caboodle. A few years back, Dean and Sam inadvertently started the Apocalypse, and the angels all started coming out of the woodwork and making a pain in the ass of themselves. They're smug, arrogant bastards who despise humanity because God prefers us to them. Maybe they should check their personalities to see why that might be. Anyway, the boys saved the world, Sam trapped the devil himself and stuck him back in the cage where he belongs, and was tortured mercilessly for over a year, and then Castiel, our only angel friend, destroyed the wall in Sam's head and drove the poor kid crazy by letting him remember everything that happened to him in Hell. He got fixed by Castiel, but the situation was much the same as what Dean is going through now. Zachariah was killed by Dean during the Apocalypse. He was the smuggest, most arrogant son of a bitch in existence and liked to torture the boys into making Dean say yes to his archangel, Michael. But Dean got pissed off and killed him. Thing is, when Castiel went nuts, he must have set the bastard loose again. So, to get revenge on Dean for killing him, he's killed the person who matters most to him, Sam, and is now driving him insane and making him think he did it. Simple." He said, and Marion looked at him disbelieving.

"Simple?" he asked disbelievingly, and Bobby shrugged.

"Well it makes sense to me." He said defensively, and Jody rolled her eyes.

As Marion asked more about the supernatural, Dean could hear Sam screaming, see his baby brother looking at him imploringly as he was on the rack, hellfire all around him, as Alastair tortured him with malice and Ruby undressed in order to get closer to Sam, who was protesting that if he slept with her his brother would hate him even more than he already did. Dean squeezed his eyes shut to try and block out the images, but then he felt a hand on his shoulder, and turned to see, to his great surprise, Castiel, once more back in his trench coat. Dean felt a wave of fury, and jumped up, determined to kill the arrogant, power hungry bastard who had betrayed him, destroyed Sam's wall, and had set loose the things that had killed both Bobby and Sam. He would show Sam, show Ruby, that he didn't love Cas more than he loved Sam, he was going to beat Cas to death with his bare hands.

However, with a rustle of wings, Cas blinked to the other side of the room and looked at him pityingly.

"_You see what you have wrought Dean_?" he asked gently, and Dean glowered at him.

"I haven't wrought anything yet you son of a bitch. You betrayed us! You nearly killed Sam. You set the Leviathans loose, and they killed you and Bobby. And you set Zachariah loose, and because of you, he murdered Sam!" he yelled, wanting nothing more than to launch himself at Cas and kill him, sword or not.

"_But now Sam is where you think he belongs, he is in Hell. You said he belonged there yourself. You said that if he wasn't your brother, you would want to hunt him. And now he's where you put him. If only you had done that years ago Dean, you could have saved yourself so much heartache. You wanted Sam there, to suffer for all he has done. It took me a while, but now we are finally the team we were meant to be. I've finally forced Sam out_." He said confidently, and Dean shook his head desperately.

"No, I didn't want Sam in Hell, he doesn't belong there, and when I said that I wanted to hunt him, I had no idea what he was going through, how much he was hurting, how hard it was for him. And you will never, ever replace him." He spat angrily.

"_But Dean, you wanted me to! After I freed you from Hell, you started drifting more to me, and leaving your demonic brother behind. You wanted me to replace Sam, and you got what you wanted. I replaced Sam, and he ran off to his whore, Ruby. And after all, you're the one who said that you had more fun with me than you ever had with Sam. You're the one who said you felt free when you no longer had to haul him around. You wanted him gone Dean, you wanted someone better, someone like you, someone you didn't feel bogged down by or responsible for, and you got him. Me._"

Dean turned away from Cas, desperately willing it not to be true. But he had said those things, he had meant them at the time, angry as he was with Sam and with himself. He had never again uttered them, but he couldn't help but fear that Sam somehow knew what he said, that he had heard Dean's callous contempt for him. What if Sam believed it, believed that was what Dean truly felt? He hadn't, but he had let Cas push Sam out anyway, he knew that. He had chosen the angel over his brother, and as a result Sam had chosen Ruby over him. And he could see Sam, still twisting and turning in hellfire, meat hooks impaled through his body, blood streaming down his naked body, looking sorrowfully at him, as though trying to understand what he had done that was so wrong to make his brother choose someone over him. And he was giving Cas a jealous look, and then looking away as Alastair again returned and cranked a while, contorting Sam's body while he yelled out in pain.

"_After all, I get forgiven anything. Sam doesn't. Did you even care about him at all, or was it just a carefully constructed mask? You wanted me to be your brother Dean, and I became it, and through me you achieved what you always wanted. The death of your little brother, the end of him holding you back, weighing you down. Doesn't that make you feel happy_?"

"NO!" Dean hollered, and the others in the room looked at him urgently, and Jody rubbed his back to calm him, making hushing noises while looking at the other two, a scared expression on her face.

"Looks like he needs help more than I do. Alright, Dean, can you hear me?" Marion asked, and he nodded weakly.

"Yeah. It was Cas this time, saying I wanted him to replace Sam, saying I wanted Sam dead because I wanted Cas to be my brother. I didn't want Cas to be my brother did I?" he asked pleadingly.

Sam didn't have an answer that time, he was just looking at Dean, wondering what else would be revealed.

"I mean, I told Cas I had more fun with him. I told Cas that I felt free when I didn't have Sam holding me back, I was happy when he was gone." Dean mumbled, and Sam flinched, looking away from his brother, hurt. So he had more fun with an emotionless angel than he had with him did he? He had wanted rid of him, was happy when he was gone. Great. His big brother really missed him when they split up didn't he? Sam knew he was being silly, knew it was a figment of Dean's imagination, but what if he really had meant those things, at some time or other? Was some part of Dean actually glad that Sam was dead?

"No Dean. You didn't want him to replace Sam. I know you'll be the first to admit to screwing up a few times with your brother back then, but you would never trade Sam for anyone. When you said those things you were angry, you didn't mean them, you were lashing out. You hear me?" Bobby asked loudly, but Sam also supposed it was for his benefit, and feeling slightly better he nodded to himself. Dean might have meant them at the time, but he hadn't been fond of his brother himself at the time either, they had both said stuff they had meant but later regretted.

Marion looked at Dean worriedly, before looking at the other two.

"Alright, this kid isn't getting any better, he's more than a few matches short of a box, and it's getting worse. We have what I suppose is an eyewitness account that Dean didn't murder Sam, for a start." He said.

"Yeah, but all the evidence points to Dean and it's not as if we can use it in court to prove he didn't kill Sam is it? But...you do believe him don't you?" Jody asked, as Dean looked miserably around, wanting to see Sam and tell him he hadn't meant those things, that he'd been an angry idiot at the time, that he shouldn't have pushed Sam away when he needed him most, should never have thought he would get on better without his baby brother.

Look at him, he was a wreck, and he'd only been without Sam for a few hours! He needed Sam, he needed his Sam, he needed his Sammy.

"Look, there's some crazy crap going on, and I don't know what the hell it is that I've gotten myself mixed up in. But, I do believe that it was Sam who was talking to Dean, and I don't believe Dean murdered his brother. And the poor kid is going crazy, and it's all the fault of my main suspect. So, how does one such as I go about arresting an angel?" he asked, and Dean and Sam both smiled.

"You don't arrest angels, you kill them." Dean explained, and Marion sighed.

"I was afraid you were going to say that. Alright. Let's give this floundering ship a rudder." He said, standing and strolling through Sam, who gave him a dirty look.

"Hey, watch where you're walking." He said irritably, and sat beside Dean, wishing he could console his brother.

"Alright. Dean didn't kill Sam. Dean is also going insane. The one who did kill Sam and behind Dean's insanity is an angel with a grudge. Do we have any idea of where he might be?" he asked, and Bobby frowned.

There was really no way of knowing where Zachariah was. They could summon him, but the spiteful son of a bitch would probably appear in his true form and incinerate Dean, Jody and Marion's eyes, which would suck slightly.

"The green room." Sam and Dean said in unison, and Marion looked at Dean curiously.

"It's a sort of pocket realm, angels are in control and apart but separate from the world. Would make sense that he would be there." Bobby said, and Marion nodded.

"Alright. So, we go to this green room then." He said, and Jody and Bobby looked at him in surprise.

"Wait, you want to help kill an angel? Because that's what we're gonna have to do." Bobby reminded, and Marion nodded, looking pale, but still nodded firmly.

"Bobby, this Zachariah is obviously all kinds of dangerous and has to be stopped. I'm a policeman, it's my job to do that. And if that involved bending the rules a little, then...so be it. Dean didn't murder Sam. And Dean shouldn't be tortured for the rest of his life. So, whatever needs done, I'm going to help do it." He said earnestly, and Bobby smiled at him.

"Hey, I reckon you and me could have made a right pair of hunters, join up with Rufus, we'd have been unstoppable. What about you Jody?" Bobby asked, and she shrugged.

"You asked me for my help. I said you'd get it, you've got it. Sam's dead, and Dean's losing it. The least we can do is put the bastard behind all this way for good." She said bravely, and Dean smiled up at her.

"Thanks Jody. You too Marion. It means a lot." He said, and once more he could see Sam on the rack, screaming for the big brother who he believed loathed him and wanted him gone, and he shook his head, closing his eyes trying to clear the image.

All a series of gestures that did not go unnoticed.

"How long does he have? You know, before meltdown?" Marion asked worriedly, and Bobby shrugged.

"I don't know. Sam managed his hallucinations for months, but Sam, well he's a lot more stubborn and a lot less inclined to roll over. Dean's just lost his brother, so bad though it sounds, I don't think he has long." He said, his eyes fixed on Dean in worry.

"Alright. So, we need to get to this green room. If we survive, you and I Jody can hopefully end this, make it obvious that Dean didn't kill Sam. You with me?" Marion asked, and she nodded, then sent a mistrusting look to the door.

"Your deputy could cause problems with this, you realise that don't you?" she asked, and he nodded.

"I know. Right, if we're to get to this green room, Dean will have to come with us. Which means I'll need to get him out of the station without Charlie seeing. How do you kill an angel?" he asked, and Bobby supposed he ought to tell him before he went and did something stupid.

"We need an angelic sword." He said, and Marion blanched.

"Great. I'll just pop to the gun store and get one." He said sarcastically, and Jody glowered at him.

"There should be one in the car. Can you get me out of here?" Dean asked, and he nodded.

"Yeah, I can, but it will need to wait until tonight ok? That way we can hopefully avoid awkward questions." He said, and Dean reluctantly nodded.

"We'll keep an eye on him until then." Jody assured him, stroking Dean's cheek tenderly, but Dean shook his head.

"I want to see Sam." He said firmly.

Beside him, Sam looked at him sadly, wishing his brother could see him.

"I want you to see me too Dean, but you can't." He lamented sadly, though if they were any closer their foreheads would be touching.

"I thought you couldn't see spirits?" Marion asked, and Bobby shook his head.

"You can't see him Dean, you know that." He said kindly, but Dean shook his head adamantly, eyes focused on Marion.

"Not what I meant. I want to see Sam. You know...his, well his body." He said, his voice wavering and Sam looked at Dean in shock.

"Are you sure?" Marion asked, and the other two looked at Dean warily.

"Yeah. I don't want him...I don't want him to think I just left to potentially get myself killed without saying goodbye. I don't want him to think he's alone. And I want to make sure he's alright, that he's..." he said, but his voice was tight with tears and he couldn't say anymore.

Sam smiled sadly at his big brother as he looked at him. He knew what he wanted to say at the end too. He wanted to make sure he didn't need anything, that he was warm enough. He wanted to see his brother one last time. Sam blinked tears from his eyes, and watched as Marion nodded.

"Very well." He said, and left the room, and Dean felt the tears come down his face again, unknowingly mimicking his brother, and Jody wrapped him in a hug.

XX

"No, you can't put in the report about the seizure!" Charlie protested as Marion sat at his desk, preparing for his little jailbreak later in the evening.

"Why not?" he asked incredulously, and Charlie glowered at the door.

"Because it's a scam! H's tricking you. He killed his brother, all the evidence verifies it, and you still won't admit it. It's obvious. He murdered his brother and now he's trying his hardest to get away with it!" Charlie spat, and Marion glowered at him.

"And he says he didn't. This is far too easy Charlie, something is going on here, and I intend to find out what. And Dean is clearly devastated by what happened to his brother, so I think it warrants investigation, am I clear?" he demanded angrily, and Charlie nodded reluctantly.

"He did it, you'll see." Charlie sneered, unable to let the matter drop as he glowered to the room Dean was in.

"I'm sure I will. Now, go and write up your report, then get out of here. I believe Dean may be innocent, and so I am investigating. And if you ever challenge me like this again, I will make you very sorry. Clear?" Marion demanded, and Charlie nodded stiffly, before flouncing off to his desk.

Dean Winchester had killed his brother. Charlie had never found any clue as to who had murdered his brother, his brother had been shot at close range and buried, and found a few months later. He hated these sorts of cases. All the evidence pointed to Dean. Dean himself was beginning to think he had done it, regardless of mental problems. If that were omitted from the report, Dean would be sent down for life, just as a slayer of kin ought to be.

Dean was scum. He had murdered his brother, it was obvious, and he deserved everything he got because of it.

So why was the sheriff so determined that Dean was innocent? He must be too close to this case, to soft in the head to see that Dean was deceiving him. He couldn't allow that. Dean had to be sent down, maybe that would get some measure of justice for his own brother.

He didn't have a choice.

Charlie looked around, and when he saw no one was watching, he flagged up the incident. The FBI could potentially be a big help in sending this son of a bitch to prison where he belonged, seeing as the sheriff wouldn't.

Pleased, Charlie headed home.

XX

"Sir?" a young man called, and a man with blond hair with a spiked up fringe turned expectantly to him.

"Yes, what is it?" he asked.

"I thought you ought to know sir, a police station in South Dakota has put up a red flag, under the name of Dean Winchester. He's being held for the murder of his brother, Sam. But I thought they had been killed?" the young man asked in confusion, and Valente laid his hand on his shoulder.

"Well, perhaps I ought to go take a look, what do you think? Because if Winchesters are on the menu, then I'm the one who's going to be having them for dinner." Valente said, and immediately left the office.

Ah, the benefits of being a Leviathan within the FBI. First dibs on juicy meals like the Winchesters. Climbing into his car, he applied the gas. It would take him a good while to get to South Dakota.

But it would be well worth the wait.

XX

"_Thank you Dean! I was missing sweet little Sammy, and you sent him back to me, you're such a good sport! Now him and I can play together all the day, I think we'll play dogs and bitches, and he's the bitch_!" Lucifer taunted.

"No, leave Sam alone you perverted son of a bitch! Leave him alone!" Dean hollered, as Lucifer ripped Sam from the rack, leaving chunks of flesh behind, span Sam around, who was whimpering and trying to get away, and then bent him over.

"No, Sam! No!" Dean yelled, as Sam screamed in pain.

"_You wanted him to endure this and now thanks to you he has a front row seat! Say thank you to Dean Sammykins_!" Lucifer crowed as he took advantage of Sam, who was crying Dean's name feebly as Lucifer pounded into him.

"SAM!" Dean yelled, and ran at Lucifer, only to crash into the wall and knock himself to the ground, cursing.

"Dean, please, it isn't real, fight it! Please!" Sam pleaded desperately, but his brother couldn't hear him.

Jody came back in from the loo and saw Dean lying dazed on the floor.

"Dean! Are you alright?" she asked, and he shook his head as Sam's pained and horrified screams filled his head.

"He's losing it." Bobby said grimly, and she looked at Dean hopelessly as he cowered into a ball, rocking and holding his head.

"It's not real, it's not real, go away you're not real..." he mumbled to himself, and Jody looked at bobby helplessly.

"What can we do? How can we help him? I hate being like this, seeing how pained he is and not being able to do a damn thing about it." She said sadly, trying to soothe Dean but to no avail.

"There's nothing we can do Jody. It's in his head and he thinks it's real. The only way to help him is to kill Zachariah, and I'm not sure he's even gonna make it that far." Bobby lamented, also hating how upset and unbalanced Dean was, and he knew his boy was losing control of his sanity, and his grip on reality, quicker by the hour.

Marion entered and gave Dean a saddened glance, which the shaking mess didn't see, and wondering if it might not be a little kinder to put Dean out of his misery and allow him to join his brother.

"You!" Dean said sharply, making him jump, and Dean crawled to his feet and grabbed the front of Marion's shirt.

"Dean, what is it?" Jody asked nervously, trying to pull Dean off of Marion.

"If we fail, if I crack, promise me something! Promise me you'll kill me!" he begged, tears in his eyes as he looked up at Marion beseechingly.

"What? No! I'm not going to kill you Dean, we're going to fix you. It'll be alright." Marion soothed, but Dean shook his head, a wild look in his eyes.

"No, you have to promise to kill me, don't give that bastard the satisfaction. I want to die! Don't you see that? I want to die! I'm fed up, I want out! I want to go with Sam!" he cried, his body breaking down into sobs and Jody and Marion looked at each other in shocked horror, while Bobby didn't seem that phased by Dean's admission. He wasn't at all surprised.

"No Dean, you promised! Please, stay here, try and live your life, please! I don't want you to be dead too, not because of me." Sam whispered sadly, wishing he was the one doing what Jody was doing and be the one holding his brother to him, just as Dean had always done with him.

"We won't kill you Dean. This isn't over yet." Jody whispered, and pulled Dean into a hug.

"Please! You've got to promise!" Dean shouted like an upset child, and Marion received a look from Bobby, and nodded.

"I...I promise." He said, and Dean nodded at him, while he was fixed with a glare from Jody.

"What? No! I won't let you kill him!" she spat angrily, and he patted the air to calm her.

"Calm down Jody, I had to say something. Just, go with it alright?" Marion asked quietly, and she then saw he had only said he would kill Dean, not that he actually would do it.

"Dean? If you want, you can visit Sam now." Marion said, and he seemed quite lucid as soon as he said it, getting to his feet and rushing to the door so he could see his brother one last time.

"Great, now he's trying to get himself lost in the station." Marion grumbled and chased after him.

"Dean..." Jody said sadly, hating how wretched he was and wishing she could do more.

"Marion did what he had to, and at least Dean asked him rather than you. I know it sucks Jody, but promising to kill him was the only way he was going to calm Dean down enough to get anything out of him. And believe me, I'd rather one of you pair killed Dean than Zachariah, there's no telling what the bastard will do to him. He doesn't have long left, he's being destroyed Jody. And we still have an angel to deal with. Dean needs some reassurance. And the two of them always said that without each other, they would want to die. He's just covering his bases with what's left of his mind." He said, and hated the tears that were falling from her eyes.

"This sucks Bobby." She said softly, and he laid a hand on her shoulder.

"I know it does. Come on, let's catch up." He said and they headed after Dean.

XX

Marion thought of the pleading look Dean had given him. Dean had begged him to kill him if he couldn't stop Zachariah. Poor kid, to have lost everything so completely that death seemed the best option...no wonder the kid was so messed up.

And to top it off, he had promised to kill him. In cold blood, rather than let Zachariah win. He had gone from sheriff to potential murdered. If it could really be considered murder. Dean wanted to die, wanted to be with his brother. It seemed more like euthanasia than anything else.

But either way, Marion had said he would kill him if it came to it. And that destroyed more of his soul than anything else tonight already had.

He didn't know if he could give Dean what he wanted. He didn't want to know either.

XX

"_I'm so proud of you son_!" John Winchester said proudly as he appeared, and he clapped Dean's shoulder fondly.

"Dad?" Dean asked in shock.

"_Clearly. You did good Dean, I'm proud of you_." He said with a smile, and Dean looked at him curiously.

"For what?"

"_For what else? You finally killed Sam! Like I've been trying to get you to do for years. He killed your mother Dean. He was born evil. Your life, your mom, your childhood on the road, it was all because of Sam. He was evil from the moment he was conceived. Your mom and I tried to stop it, but it was just in his veins Dean. He had to be stopped, it was the only way we could win. The only way we could stop the demons and screw them over one last time. Take away their special toy. And you did it Dean. You stopped the demons by killing your brother. You always were my perfect little soldier_." John said gruffly, and Dean glowered at him.

"No! Sam wasn't born evil, he's good. And you knew didn't you? You knew all about the demons wanting him, about our role in the Apocalypse, and you kept it to yourself didn't you?" Dean spat furiously, and John smiled.

"_Of course I knew. I wasn't going to let the demons win. I forced them to start their plans. I always knew you would kill Sam and mess everything up for them. You were always the one who was going to win, I trained you for it since the beginning. You had to be able to kill Sam, it was the only way I could screw Azazel over one last time! And you Dean, you did it! You made me so proud, the hateful way you killed Sam, he deserved every bit of it didn't he? And you enjoyed it, I know you did. I always knew you would kill your brother, that you wouldn't let me down, that you would make sure I had one last time to screw over the demons, and you did me proud Dean. You killed that little monster like the vermin he was, you were always going to be the winner, Sam was weak and pathetic, you were always the best. You saved the world, did me proud and made sure no demon ever forgot John Winchester. My plan worked, the bad guys are screwed over and that hellspawn son of mine dead forever, at the hands of my greatest son_!" John crowed smugly, and Dean snapped.

"You son of a bitch! You're no father, you're a monster! A revenge driven, obsessive monster! Sam didn't deserve to die, not because of you because you didn't tell us anything! And how dare you tell me to kill him! I raised that kid, you never did! He wasn't evil, he didn't deserve to die, it's you who deserves to die! You knew all about what was going to happen, but because you wanted revenge, because you had to be the clever manipulator, the one who screwed up the demons, you let the world go to hell, and my brother die, just so you could win one more round! You're a monster! What kind of father tells his son to murder his baby brother? Bastard!" Dean raged, punching and punching until Marion pulled him against the wall, stopping him from beating up the floor, and he could hear Jody and Bobby coming.

"You back?" he asked, and Dean nodded weakly.

"Yeah." He said breathlessly and jumped up, his head pounding, now seeing his brother being tortured and taunted by their father, and rushed towards the morgue, trying to ignore the screams of pain and despair, the cries of his name.

"Bobby?" Marion asked, eyes clouded with anger.

"Yeah?"

"Was their father a scumbag? Did he really order Dean to kill Sam?" he asked, his voice shaking, and Jody watched them both with wide eyes.

"Yes." Bobby said, in answer to both questions. Even now, John Winchester still wasn't his favourite person alive or dead.

Jody's jaw dropped and Marion suppressed a wave of anger.

"Son of a bitch. He still alive?"

"No, he died a while back. Why?"

"Because any father who orders their son to murdered their baby brother, no matter the reason, deserves to be hung drawn and fucking quartered. Shame he's dead. I'd have liked to do it myself." He said darkly, and entered the morgue.

Sam's naked body was on the table, the wound stitched up and the blood cleaned off. Dean's throat hitched as he behld the white, cold form of Sam, his hair splayed in a circle around his head, his body covered by a thin white sheet. He looked so peaceful, but Dean knew there was something off about the picture.

"Wow...I don't look so good." Sam said, feeling slightly queasy as he looked at his own body.

Jody, Bobby and Marion stood at the edge of the room, as Dean picked up his brother. Sam's head flopped uselessly on his shattered neck, making Sam feel slightly sick as he watched. But he immediately felt better as he saw Dean wrap his dead brother in a hug, putting his hand behind his head and holding his freezing cold brother close to him, burying his face in his hair.

"Oh Sammy, I'm so sorry. For everything. I never wanted you to die. I want you to come back. Please come back. I was a crappy brother at times, I know that. But I never once gave up on you. I'm so sorry I never let you know. You were, are, the most important thing in my life. And I let that shit Zachariah take you away from me. I'm so sorry Sammy, if it was me, I never wanted to hurt you. But either way, Zach's to blame. So...I'm going to go and kill him ok? I'm going to kill that arrogant bastard, and I'm going to enjoy it. I chose you the last time we encountered him, and I killed him. I never let you know that I killed him because I wanted you to be my baby brother again, the one who was proud of me again. And it sort of worked, right Sammy? Well I'm choosing you again. I'm going to kill this son of a bitch, and I'm going to enjoy it this time too just as much as I did then. I'm going to get this bastard for what he did to us Sam. For you. I wish you were here Sammy. I need you...I love you." Dean whispered tearfully into his brother's hair, and Sam had tears rolling down his cheeks as he heard his brother pour his heart out to his corpse.

"Dean..." he whispered sadly, wishing he could let his brother know he had heard everything, and how much it meant to him.

"I let you down again Sammy, I let you get killed. I don't know if I did it myself, or if Zach did, I don't really care. I failed again. So I'm going to kill him, or I'm going to die trying ok? And if I do, you better not bitch at me. I want you back Sammy, and if dying means getting you back, then I'll do it quite happily. I will get you back baby brother, somehow or other. I don't know how, I don't know if I can get you back or if I have to join you, but either way, I'm not going to stop. Ok? Don't give up on me just yet." He whispered fiercely, still hugging his brother to him, and Sam wanted to hug his brother, but still couldn't, and hated it, hated himself, hated this entire horrible situation.

"I will get you back baby brother. I will get you back Sammy." Dean vowed once more, and gently lowered his brother's body to the slab, brushing his hair with his fingers so that his brother's hair was tucked behind his ears, and so the fringe was brushed up and down to the side.

He then picked up another couple of blankets from the other side of the room, and laid them on his brother.

"Don't give up on me Sasquatch. We're in this together, somehow, no matter what." Dean said, tucking his brother in gently before heading out of the room.

Sam gave a small sad smile as he watched Dean tuck his body in. His big brother. Devastated, losing his marbles, but still the overprotective, overbearing and in his own way overloving big brother.

"I'm with you Dean. No matter what." Sam promised, and he followed his brother from the morgue, following the spots of tears left in his brother's wake, as the others all mourned in their own private ways.

"Boy. I really am a downer. Maybe you do have more fun with Cas. Can't blame you. There's more cheer in a graveyard." Sam said, smiling a little, and followed his brother, and left his body behind, tucked in against the cold.

XX

The station was mercifully empty as the four of them, followed by Sam's spirit, clambered into the car. Sam was starting to get worried. The moon was high in the night sky, and Tessa would be coming soon, coming back for him. He didn't want to leave. No matter what, he wanted to stay with his brother, whether it be spirit, ghost, zombie, anything, just as long as he got to stay with Dean.

He wouldn't let her take him. He would fight, tooth and nail if that's what it took, but he wasn't going to let Tessa take him away from his brother.

Bobby looked at Dean in concern, who was obviously seeing his brother being tortured again, but he seemed to be in control, at least for the moment. The scene in the morgue...he was dead and he still felt his heart breaking. The poor kid really was heartbroken without Sam, vowing to protect him, vowing to get him back no matter what it took. Dean needed Sam. So either Dean would find a way to resurrect Sam, or Dean would happily kill himself to be with him. Zachariah had one thing right. They were alarmingly co-dependent on each other.

Marion kept his eyes on the road as he sped out of Brandon. At this time of night, there was no one on the roads, and so they were making good progress. He held back tears in his throat. These boys, they clearly loved each other so much, it was heartbreaking to see how badly Dean needed Sam. The scene in the morgue had been one of the most difficult and heartrending things he had ever experienced, and as a cop, he had experienced a fair few. Dean was promising his brother he would get him back, or was contemplating suicide if he couldn't. He knew his life would be forever changed by meeting the Winchesters. He would help them, no matter what. These two brothers, one he had never even spoken to, had already affected him in so many ways. After all, he was risking his job here, just to prove Dean's innocence and save his sanity by stopping a dangerous and vengeful angel. He snorted. And just this morning his biggest problem was the fact that he hadn't bought any milk.

Jody looked at Dean, wrapped up in his own arms and his own world, muttering to himself about Sam. She had never seen anyone in so much pain as he was, or someone who loved another as completely as he loved Sam. She sniffed. The business in the morgue would break even the most hardened of hearts, Dean holding his dead little brother to him and vowing to get him back, no matter what it took, vowing to protect him and make sure Zachariah never hurt them again. And Jody might have been being stupid, but she thoroughly believed that Dean would actually succeed in what he wanted to do. She smiled softly as she kept an eye on him.

Dean shook violently. Sam was before him, now pale white and dead, and he was still screaming, incinerated repeatedly by hellfire, tortured relentlessly by Alastair, Ruby, Lucifer, Castiel and their father. Sam was howling in pain.

"_Dean! Dean! Dean! Help me! Whatever I did I'm sorry! Why did you do this to me, what did I do wrong? Please Dean! Save me! I promise I'll be good, I won't do it again! Stop them Dean! What did I do that was so bad that you wanted to kill me? I know I deserved it, but why, what did you do it for? DEAN_!"

"No, Sammy!" Dean screamed for the third time in a minute, and he was struggling in the back of the car, trying to launch himself forward to save his brother.

"Keep him under control or he might go out the windscreen!" Marion barked as he struggled to keep the car under control.

"I'm trying! Dean, you've got to snap out of it! Sam isn't there, nothing's happening to him! Dean!" Jody begged.

"No, Sammy! Sam! It wasn't you, you didn't do anything, I didn't mean to kill you, I didn't want to! You did nothing wrong! Let him go! SAMMY!" Dean cried hysterically, and Jody was losing the struggle.

"Dean, you've got to calm down, Sam isn't there, no one's hurting him. Dean! Listen to me!" Bobby cried urgently, but Dean was inconsolable, and Jody was losing control of him, and Marion was weaving erratically across the road as Dean tried to free himself to help the image of his brother.

Sam looked at his brother, hating how helpless he was, seeing his brother lose all control, the last vestiges of his sanity and being totally unable to do anything about it. He had to stop Dean, calm him, he so wanted to touch his brother, to let him know he was there, not at the vision's mercy. He had to stop Dean hurting himself, he had to protect him, but he couldn't, he couldn't do anything! And unless Dean calmed down soon, there was a good chance he was going to get the others killed, and Jody was getting tired, she couldn't hold him for much longer. Dean was still screaming blue murder, trying to free the vision he was seeing.

"Dean it isn't real! Remember, you taught me how to...that's it!" Sam said, clicking his fingers in realisation.

Praying that his plan would work, he plucked Dean's knife from Jody's belt, and she looked at it in surprise as to her, it floated free without any support whatsoever.

"Um, Bobby?" she asked, her arms around Dean, but her muscles were blazing, and his eyes widened as he saw the floating knife.

Dean however was still totally ignorant, still screaming as he tried to get free to save Sam.

"Jody!" Marion cried as the car wobbled again when Dean accidentally knocked him.

"Sam!" Dean cried.

Sam took a deep breath, and cut down, right in a circular slice on Dean's flailing left hand. Dean yelped in pain and suddenly stopped struggling, flouncing back in the seat as he looked at the cut now bleeding on his hand.

"What the hell?" Marion asked, relieved to finally have the car under control again.

Sam smiled, as did Dean as he realised what it meant.

"It was Sam. Sam cut me." He said ecstatically, watching as blood dripped onto his jeans.

"And that's good why?" Jody asked in confusion.

Sam put his hand around where Dean's wrist was and then turned his own left hand palm upwards.

"He knew it would break me out, remind me it wasn't real, just like it did for him. The cut, reminds him that he's here. He did the same to me." Dean said, smiling in delight.

"Confused." Jody said, and Marion nodded in agreement.

"Oh I get it now, why didn't I think of that?" Bobby asked himself irritably.

Sam and Dean both looked at the cuts on their hands, Sam's healed and scarred, Dean's new and bleeding.

And separated as they were by the veil between life and death, Sam sat right in front of Dean, staring up at his big brother lovingly, relieved his idea had worked, that he had saved Dean, freed him however temporarily. And in unison, both boys said,

"Stone Number One."

**Poor Dean, he's having a really crappy time of it. But at least now he can identify what's real and what's not, I thought it would be right for Sam to calm him down and cut him, be his stone number one.**

**In case I didnt explain it well enough, the memory of actually having killed Sam was what caused Dean's seizure, it messed up his head, like when you ask a computer to do something it cant do, it crashes, thats sort of like what he did.  
**

**You might have gathered from his appearance earlier that I'm not best pleased with Cas at the moment. I also never liked John, so the opportunity to demonise him here was very fun, I always hoped Dean would give him a smack, he always deserved it in my opinion, especially when his last words to Dean were 'kill Sammy'. Bastard deserved everything he got if you ask me  
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**So now we're bound for the green room and a confrontation with Zachariah. This battle will not be without losses i'm afraid, but the main question is, what will happen to Sam and Dean? Dean is bananas even with his coping mechanism, and Tessa is coming for Sam. What will happen to them next?  
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**Charlie is also going to be a bit of a problem, and now Valente, the Leviathan FBI agent, is on the boys case thanks to that stuck up, judgmental yahoo.  
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**So, next time is the last chapter as always! What will happen in the confrontation with Zachariah? Will he be put back where he belongs? Will Sam go with Tessa? Will Dean lose all sanity and go insane? What will Valente do when he reaches the station? And what happened to Charlie's brother? And which old friend will pop up for a visit next chapter?  
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**Anyway, I'm out for my aunts 25th anniversary tomorrow so I suspect I won't update tomorrow, but if not, it will be finished on Sunday, and then we'll be on to a new story on Monday!  
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**So, thanks for reading as always, and please, as always and even more, please leave reviews, I so enjoy reading them (speaking of, has anyone else noticed that new reviews were coming up as new comments in the notification email? It's gone back to new review now, but it was definitely new comment earlier, i thought it was a bit strange)  
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**Enjoy and please review!  
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**Oh and p.s, if anyone wants to see how Dean brushed Sam's hair, ask me and i'll send you the link, it came from 7x22, i thought he looked quite nice in the photo, looked slightly different too. Bye again!  
**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural**

Sundered Veil

They drove all through the night, and Dean was a lot more stable, squeezing the cut with alarming frequency as they got closer to the green room, ignoring the presence of Lucifer, Alastair, Ruby, his father and Cas, all torturing Sam, who was pleading desperately with his brother to save him, with promises that he wouldn't let him down again, and it ripped apart Dean's heart to ignore him.

Jody was dozing beside him, her hand on his wrist as if to keep him from leaping forward again, Bobby had vanished again and Marion was stiff from the long drive.

Sam was looking at the sun that was beginning to rise in the sky worriedly. Tessa would be coming for him soon, wanting to take him on. But he couldn't go. Dean was still barely keeping it together, and he knew he couldn't leave his brother in this state. He had to stick around to help Dean. He could only hope that by killing Zachariah Dean's mind would go back to normal, because it was clear that Dean was finding it a lot harder to cope with his visions than he had anticipated. Sam frowned. He had eventually learned to just deal with them, but he supposed that losing him had weakened his brother's resistance and now he was struggling, even with the cut.

"No, Sammy, you didn't do anything wrong." Dean moaned to himself, as a wrecked image of Sam pleaded with Dean to know why he had killed him, wanting to know what he had done wrong.

"_So why did you kill me? What finally made you do it? What did I do_?" he pleaded sadly, giving his brother a puppy dog look that broke Dean's heart.

"You didn't do anything Sammy, I'm sorry I killed you, you didn't deserve it...but I was so brutal, and I'm sorry..." Dean sobbed, waking Jody up.

"Dean, we've been through this, you didn't kill Sam! Zachariah did! Please believe us!" she pleaded, but Dean could see a hurt Sam turn away from him dejectedly, and it was killing him as he remembered violently shattering his neck.

Dean began to quiver, and Jody was ready to tell Marion to stop the car when Sam pressed down on the cut again, and Dean yelped, snapping back to reality.

"Sammy?" he asked hesitantly, and Marion stared at Jody nervously.

"Hallucination or spirit?" he asked, and she shrugged, but Dean seemed to be lucid again at least for the moment, so she was willing to accept that it was the spirit.

"Stone number one..." he muttered, feeling the pressure on his hand and squeezing it harder, and looking around intently as if by staring enough he could see Sam right before him.

Sam frowned down at his hands. He was beginning to have more of an effect on the real world, which suited him. Hesitantly, he raised his hand, and ran his hand through Dean's hair experimentally, and he was as shocked as his brother was when he actually managed to move it. Dean smiled slightly and closed his eyes, savouring the ghostly touch.

"Sammy..." he muttered softly, and Sam smiled a little.

At least he could manage to do this much.

Dean continued to struggle with the visions, but knowing Sam was there, helping him, made it easier to cope with them, especially when Meg appeared and started kissing Cas, celebrating their victory over a prone and defeated Sam, who was shivering naked on the ground, teeth grinding against the pain he was in.

"_Well done my love, now you made Dean kick him out, all we need to do now is get Dean to admit how he really feels about all of us_." Meg purred, caressing Cas' cheek.

"_He wanted me to be his brother, and you to be Jess. Now he can have the life he wanted without Sam messing it up for him. Doesn't that make you happy Dean_?" Cas asked, and Dean glowered at him, shaking his head.

"No, of course not, I want Sam back, I don't want you. You betrayed us, nearly killed Sam!" he spat, and Cas cocked his head curiously.

"_But you wanted me to do that, you wanted him dead, don't you remember_?"

"_With Sam dead, Cas could finally be your brother, it's what you wanted Dean. You were hoping that Sam would die and then Cas could just take over. But he screwed up your life yet again, he still didn't die, and he dragged you further and further down_." Meg said, and Dean glowered at her hatefully.

"No. I would never want Sam dead."

Meg laughed.

"_Then why do you keep trying to kill him then huh Dean? Third time lucky, you finally got him this time. And you said yourself that he was poison, a parasite, and that you were fed up of hauling him around. Cas did what you wanted_!" she said, as if it were obvious.

"No, he's my brother, I would never want him dead, he isn't a parasite. And Cas betrayed us." Dean said stubbornly, ignoring the tears that were welling in his eyes.

"_Sam did too. But I'm always the one who gets away with things that I do wrong, you never let Sam away with it. Was what I did really that bad_?" Cas asked innocently, and Dean had had enough.

"Yes it was. Sam and I were manipulated into doing what we did, we made mistakes, and while it might seem that I'm always making him feel bad about them, Sam did everything to prove to me he wanted to fix it, and he did. He didn't go insane with power, try to hurt the ones he loved unless we forced him to, and he certainly didn't unleash an Apocalypse single handed! So don't you dare stand there and I assume I choose him over you, because I sure as hell don't! Sam is my little brother. He makes mistakes, I help clean them up, I bitch at him, he bitches back, we make up, and then we move on. Not you Cas. Not after what you did. Sam is my little brother, and while it might seem that I never have a bad word to say about you, I sure as hell do. You're a monster, worse than Sam ever was and ever could be. He's my little brother, he's allowed to make mistakes, and part of his mistakes were just as much to do with me as they were with him. You, Cas, did it all on your own, you are an arrogant, power hungry butcher, who turned on the best friends, the only friends you ever had, the ones who adopted you into their family, and you almost killed us both, and you nearly destroyed Sam! So don't you dare stand there with your demon whore, you sanctimonious son of a bitch, and say I wanted Sam dead, because I didn't, and I'm so glad I stopped being a jerk and let Sam back into my life, because given a choice between him, you, Lucifer and the Leviathans, and even Megan Fox, I will always choose Sam!" he yelled.

"Seriously? Megan Fox is hot." Marion said in surprise as the images of Cas and Meg vanished from before Dean.

"I'm guessing Cas is a bit of an asshole?" Jody asked, as Dean squeezed his cut, and he nodded, scowling darkly.

"Yeah. I can't decide who's the bigger asshole actually, him or my dad." He growled.

In front of him, Sam smiled, and tried to keep pleased tears from his eyes. Dean chose him over everyone, including to his great surprise, Megan Fox. She could suck on that, Dean wanted him more than he wanted her.

"Thanks Dean." He said, his voice pleased.

Dean frowned as he heard a tiny sound like his brother's voice on the wind, and smiled slightly, nodding to himself.

"You're welcome Sammy." He said in response, and while Marion and Jody looked at each other in surprise, Sam looked at Dean in shock. How had he heard that?

Rather than a cause for elation, he feared it was actually a cause for concern. If Dean was hearing things from Sam's side of the veil between life and death, then there was every possibility that he didn't have long left. And looking at his brother, he saw just how exhausted his brother looked, and there was stubble growing very quickly on his face, and Sam gulped. He had looked much the same after his break, as he got closer and closer to dying, to just giving up the will to live and allowing Lucifer to win.

"No Dean, fight it." Sam pleaded, and while his brother nodded as if by rote, he could see the defeated expression in Dean's eyes.

"Come on Dean, don't give up on me yet." He begged softly, just as Marion stopped the car.

"Is this it? It looks like an old warehouse to me." He said sceptically, and yelped as Bobby appeared beside him.

"Yep, that's it. Come on, let's go and get this son of a bitch and end the smug bastard once and for all." Bobby said, and they all clambered out of the car.

"I'm coming for you Sam." Tessa's voice cut across the area, and Sam froze in fear as she did so, looking around in fear.

"I've still got time left, please, just let me stay a little longer, I need to make sure Dean is ok!" he cried, and she sighed as if bored.

"Alright fine. But I am going to be coming for you." She said, and Sam shook his head, his eyes wide and fearful as he looked around himself, scared that she might show up at any minute.

"I don't have to go with you if I don't want to, you know that." He said, and she clucked her tongue from wherever the hell she was.

"I do. But trust me Sam, if you come with me when I appear, I'll only be doing you a favour, I doubt you want to watch your brother's impending, sticky end as a brain dead, drooling pile of flesh." She said confidently.

"That won't happen, Dean's stronger than that." Sam said stubbornly, and she rolled her eyes.

"Maybe. But he doesn't look so good right now does he?" she asked, and then her voice was gone, giving Sam a break.

Reluctantly, he looked at Dean, who was holding his head in pain while grinding his scarred hand against the roof of the car, trying to break through the visions.

Dean trembled as he saw Alastair ripping apart Sam time and again, hating the laughing coming from his father as he beat down on Sam, detesting the sight of Ruby wracking her fingernails down his bare back.

"_Come on Dean, you wanted this to happen to your brother, that's why you killed him. You wanted to send his freaky ass straight to hell, to me, so he could pay for making your life such a misery. And now he is. You wanted him put here, so he could suffer for everything he's done to you. That's why you killed him so viciously. Stabbing him was bad enough, that speaks of hate, you could have done it so much more kindly, but no, you wanted him to suffer_." Alastair said gloatingly, as he ripped Sam's tongue out, pulling his intestines up with them, and Dean was shaking in fear.

"No, no, no, stone number one, this isn't real...I didn't want to kill Sam, I wouldn't, I, I didn't..." he said a in a pleading voice, tears falling from his eyes, revulsion in his stomach, his hands shaking as he beheld their torturing of his little brother, his poor baby brother.

"_But then you took pleasure in it, making me so proud Dean! You twisted and twisted that knife, savouring his begging, his pleading, taking delight in making him suffer and cry as you killed him! You enjoyed killing the little demon, just like I knew you would. Consider it a lifetime worth of birthday presents, a decent one you can actually enjoy! You could have done something relatively painless to him, poisoned him, smothered him, or seeing his propensity for it, strangled him, but you chose the knife, just to demonstrate how much you hate him! Good boy_!" John said proudly, wrapping thick chains around Sam's bare torso and pulling on it, and Dean felt sick as he heard the bones crack in his brother's spine, his gagging sounds of pain seeing as he no longer had a tongue, and blood continued to spill from his mouth, tormenting him as he saw his brother in such a state and he knew full well he could do nothing to protect him, to save him.

"_You wanted to kill him Dean, just as you want to kill him now. But this time you want to free him, send him off into oblivion. But it sucks doesn't it, knowing he won't be made to hurt nearly as badly as last time. But it'll be ok Dean. Just kill him again, send him on, let him rest_." Ruby purred, but Dean shook his head, watching in horror as she peeled slices of flesh from his little brother, who was thrashing and twitching in pain.

"I didn't kill him, and no, I won't...I killed my little brother!" Dean screamed, falling to his knees as his brother looked at him pleadingly, blood pouring from his mouth, writhing in pain as he was tortured, and then Dean blanched as John ripped the hair from his brother's head, turning him bald, blood coming from his head such was the force his hair was pulled out of his head.

"NO! Let him go, it was me, take me instead!" Dean pleaded as tears poured down Sam's face as Alastair ripped his teeth out with a lethal looking instrument.

"_You shattered his spindly little neck Dean, how does that make you feel_?" Ruby taunted as Sam cried before him, and tears were in Dean's eyes, vomit in his mouth as he crawled towards his little brother.

Images of Sam's terrified and desperate face, his frantic, petrified pleading, as Dean seized his head and burled his head around, snapping every little fragment of the bone in his neck. Dean fell to the floor, twitching as he once more relived his final murder of his baby brother, seeing Sam's head flop limply and lifelessly back onto the pillow at an unnatural angle.

Up ahead, he saw an image of himself, smiling in a predatory fashion down at his brother, who was shaking in terror, fear and pain, looking up at him desperately, begging him not to do what he was about to do.

"_You know, I always hated those eyes, I should have hurt you every time you looked at me like that. Let's see. Or not, in your case_." He said sinisterly, and pulled both eyes from Sam's head, leaving empty hollows as he did so, and Sam was thrashing violently in pain as he did so.

Dean could vaguely hear panicked voices yelling his name, and a pressure on his cut, but it didn't matter. His brother was in eternal pain, and now he himself was torturing him, hurting the one he loved the most. How could he have done that to Sam, murdered him and condemned him to that?

"Dean, listen to me!" Sam's voice yelled urgently, but he couldn't yell anymore, it had to be his imagination, Sam's tongue had been taken out.

His evil alter ego, dressed all in black and draped in a leather jacket, his hair now pure black and gelled into a mohawk, bent down and seized Sam by the neck, lifting him high into the air, watching in malicious delight as he struggled, his legs kicking violently.

"No, Sammy!" Dean wailed.

"Dean! You didn't kill me! I'm not being tortured, I'm not in Hell, I'm here, right beside you, as usual!" Sam cried, and Dean looked around, desperate for it to be true.

"Sammy?" he asked in a begging voice, as the image of his evil self strangling the shattered remains of his little brother.

"Dean, please! Come back! I know what you're seeing, I know it seems real, but it isn't! It isn't real! Remember, stone number one! I'm stone number one, believe in me, this me, the one talking to you. Squeeze your scar, remember, I might be dead but I'm still here. Dean, I'm still here, and I'm never going to leave you. I'm staying here with you, keep squeezing the scar, keep believing in me, I'm right beside you. Stone number one. You got me out remember? I was back. You've got to believe this isn't real. This isn't real. I'm not in hell, you got me out. I'm out, I'm here, with you. Forever." He promised softly, and Dean suddenly stopped shaking, and the images of his evil self strangling his little brother came to an end, and he was looking up at Jody, Marion and Bobby.

"You back with us kid?" Bobby asked worriedly, and Dean forced down on his scar, nodding as he did so.

"Yeah. I heard Sammy, he was talking to me, calming me down..." Dean said, as Marion helped him to his feet.

"Just a little longer okay honey? Now, this everything we need?" Jody asked, showing him an angel sword, and he nodded.

"Yeah. We stab him with that, he goes boom." Dean said, and Bobby nodded.

"Hopefully taking these mickey mouse visions along with him." He said, giving Dean a worried look.

"Let's go." Marion said tersely, hoisting a salt gun and a normal knife and after exchanging dark looks with Bobby and Jody, and looking in concern at Dean, they entered the warehouse.

"Just keep it together a while longer Dean." Sam pleaded his brother from beside him, hating how pale, worn out and tired his big brother looked.

The group edged forward, coming to the office.

"What if it doesn't work?" Jody asked, and Dean scowled, tightening his grip on his knife handle to keep up pressure on his scar, and raising the angel blade, prepared to stab Zachariah as soon as he saw him.

"Then we keep trying until it does." He growled, and opened the door.

To emerge into the beautiful room, where he had given up on Sam, where he had lost Adam and where he had killed Zachariah the last time. The place was beautiful, and there was no sign of what had happened there last time, it was clean and orderly once more.

"Hmm, pretty." Marion stated as they entered, weapons raised.

Dean saw the broken remains of Sam on one side, and the dead body he had found on the other and pointedly ignored the two of them, squeezing down on his cut to try and banish the images. He had to stay lucid, otherwise, they were all about to die.

"Zachariah! I'm here you son of a bitch!" he bellowed.

"Dean, that's no way to great an old friend now is it?" came the smug, hated voice of Zachariah, following a rustling of wings, and Dean, Bobby, Jody and Marion all turned to glare at him, and Sam glared at him too, wishing he could reach out and kill the bastard for what he had done to Dean.

"You're no friend of mine Zachariah. What the hell did you come back for?" he asked, glaring at the bald angel, who was smiling smugly.

"Well after your obnoxious little gnat of a friend Castiel set me loose, it seemed a shame to go straight back in without a fight, so I escaped. You boys, you caused me rather a lot of trouble, even before you killed me. Do you have any idea how insulting it is to be killed by an insignificant little gnat within an ant's digestive tract like you?" he challenged, and Marion raised an eyebrow at him.

"Well hello Mr Congeniality." He said sarcastically, glaring at the angel.

"So, once I broke out, it seemed a waste of my time to go up to the heavens, they were in even more chaos than when Castiel started. So I figured the best use of my time would be to spend it destroying you. You made a fool out of me time and again, and then you killed me. Do you have any idea how many decades of preparation went into planning the Apocalypse? And you, a foul little human with delusions of grandeur, you destroyed all those plans, and now both Lucifer and Michael are stuck in the cage, all because of you! You've caused far too much trouble. I was a high ranking angel once, one of the best. Until I met you, you stubborn, arrogant, self centred, obnoxious little creep. I couldn't let everything you did slide, not after you brought me, me, one of heaven's best, to your level. It's a mistake you will rue Dean." Zachariah said, and Dean glared at the angel, dressed in a business suit as always, with cold grey eyes, not much hair, and as always his superior expression.

"So you came back, just to get revenge on me and Sam." He growled, and Jody glowered harder at the angel as he laughed.

"No, not Sam, he was just a means to an end. See, he actually played his part, he said yes to Lucifer. Problem is he's so erotically co dependent on you, that he overcame the devil, and screwed up all of our plans. We don't want to share the world with you whiny little humans anymore, to be forced to bow to such inferior beings, but because of him and you and Castiel, we're stuck here and not in Paradise like we belong. But no, I didn't set out to get revenge on Sam, he hasn't caused me nearly so much hassle as you have. But it dawned on me that after sweet baby brother so helpfully started the Apocalypse, even then he was still the most important thing in your life, even if you Dean, tried to convince yourself he wasn't. You tried to replace him with Castiel, but you couldn't. So, it became obvious. To make you hurt, to really torture you for all you've done, to show you that you should have listened to me and done as I told you, I figured what better to do than to kill sweet, adoring little Sammy?" he asked with a dark laugh, and Dean growled.

"So that's why you keep torturing Dean, making him think he killed Sam. To get back at him for making a fool out of you, for screwing up your Apocalypse, and then for killing you. And here I thought angels were meant to be good guys." Jody snarled, and Zachariah snorted derisively.

"Good guys? God meant for us to bow down to selfish, insecure, petty, vindictive little creatures as you. Why should we? You have no idea how insignificant all of you are in the grand design, you're just tics on a dog's tail you're such an insignificance. But occasionally, there's humans who won't just stand back and do as they're told. Humans who think they can be the ones to call the shots, think they can tell us what to do! Pope Alexander VI, King Henry VIII, Ghandi, Bill Clinton, and Sam and Dean bloody Winchester, all these people thinking angels are good beings, who should protect and guide, who shouldn't rule this miserable little speck of dirt, all of you are wrong! Humans are futile, mindless little creatures, who should sit down and do as they're told, but they won't! Who the hell are you, trying to defy destiny, defy our will? Look where it got you Dean. A dead little brother, and hallucinations to boot. Now you see that we truly are the superior beings, and you, you rabid little gnat, are going to suffer for all you've done to defy us, your superiors!" Zachariah roared, and the lot of them were blown over the room by a wave of his hand.

"This guy really needs a kick in the nuts." Marion snarled, firing bullets rapidly at Zachariah.

The bullets zoomed into him, but he simply rolled his eyes and crushed the gun, leaving Marion defenceless, and he leapt out of the way as Zachariah cast a ball of light at him. Bobby threw a flowerpot at him, but it shattered on the way, and an instant later, the flask was in his hand, and with a smug, gloating grin, it burst into flames.

"NO!" Dean yelled as Bobby screamed and writhed in the pain, flames encompassing his entire body, and with a last flash, he was gone, forever.

"Whoops. Did I kill Bobby like I killed Sammy?" Zachariah asked in a pitying voice, his eyes alight with malice, a smug grin of superiority on his face.

"Bobby no!" Jody cried, flinging her own knife at Zachariah, who turned it into a paper aeroplane.

"You know, I always wondered what a person with a brain aneurysm would look like." He said, and a second later Jody gave a cry of pain, her hands clasping her head, and she dropped to the floor, dead.

Dean couldn't believe it. Bobby was gone for good, just like he'd feared. The only difference was he hadn't had to do it. Now Bobby was destroyed for good, and without him and Sam, he had no desire to remain alive. And Jody, poor Jody, she was also dead, lying cold on the floor, the victim of something she should never have been involved in. Dean looked at the sword in his hand. For what he did to Sam, he still had to kill Zachariah. And then, then he and his gun would get a hell of a lot more friendly.

"This your first venture into the supernatural? Pity it's also your last. Have some lung cancer." Zachariah sneered, and after some bloody coughs, Marion rolled over, dead also, just like the rest.

Dean stood, glowering at Zachariah, his heart pounding, blood flying through his ears, tears in his eyes as he ignored the bodies on the floor and the smoky smell that had resulted from burning the flask.

"You sick, arrogant son of a bitch. You got your revenge, you killed Sam, made me think I did it, gave me hallucinations..."

Zachariah laughed.

"Yeah, I'll admit that was pretty fun. You have a lot of issues you know Dean. A lot of secret fears, fears that you have pushed Sam away, fear that you do want to hurt him, all sorts. Your mind was a paint palette, I was the artist. You like the ones of you torturing Sam? Pretty good weren't they?" he asked, and Dean looked at the angel pleadingly.

"Please. What do you want me to do? I'll do anything, just please, bring back the others." He pleaded, and Zachariah grinned, showing his teeth.

"Not this time Dean. You see, last time you wanted Michael to turn me into charcoal. And see, the more I thought about it, in that foul little corner of Purgatory you sent me, where I had to rub shoulders with nasties like Azazel, Anna, Lilith, Uriel...all of them, it occurred to me he might very well have killed me. You destroyed my worth, my reputation, and then you destroyed me, all because you couldn't stand up and do the jobs you were meant to do! No, you had to play the petulant child, just like Lucifer did, not wanting to do anything you were told.

Who are you to defy us? You're atoms on the scales we were playing with and yet you somehow still managed to screw everything up. Well, no more Dean. I killed Sam to hurt you, to break you. And then , I made you think you did it to break you further. Then I started the hallucinations to destroy you. See, the thing is, I will give Sam this: he had a greater strength of character than you do. You always assumed it would be him who caved and said yes, but no, it was you who were going to do it. Sam is much more equipped to deal with the problems I threw at you than a spoilt little brat like you, mewling about how unfair his life is, how sad and lonely he feels because he was being ordered around by us and by daddy, all of it was about you. Did it ever occur to you my poor little Dean that Sam has a hell of a lot more reason to complain than you did? No, it was all about poor little Dean!

You're a pathetic waste of time, all of our time, you're weak, childish, lazy, arrogant, spoilt, and above all else, stupid! And look at you now! The great Dean Winchester, with the weight of the world on his shoulders, crying and snivelling because everyone he loves is gone, and wanting to take the easy way out. You're pathetic. Now, let's dispense with that." Zachariah said, destroying the sword in Dean's hand as Dean stood there, stunned with the contempt Zachariah displayed, and wanting nothing more than to kill Zachariah and himself.

"Now Dean, after all you've done, don't die too quickly. And while you do die, behold as all your old friends torture your baby brother one final time, the brother who's death you will keep seeing well past the end. Goodbye Dean Winchester." Zachariah crowed in a smug, sing song voice.

Dean felt his own hands move against his will, going for his neck. He tried to stop them, tried to pull them away, but nothing happened, and even when he tried to move, he still couldn't. Dean was panicking as he wrapped his own hands around his throat and began to squeeze, just as Sam, fully restored, was once more on the rack, at the mercy of Lucifer, Alastair, Ruby, Lilith, Meg, Castiel, their father and worst of all, his evil self, who was leading the torture, hurting Sam again and again, while Sam screamed out apologies and promises to be good, while he begged to know what he had done to deserve this, wanted to know why Dean had turned on him and murdered him.

And he could also see Sam's murder, see Zachariah stabbing him in the stomach, twisting the knife again and again, Sam screaming and twisting in pain as he did so, his blood pouring everywhere, hear Sam begging Zachariah not to murder him, the final scared notes of fear in his voice and the horrible crack of shattering bone as Zachariah, complete with a smug smile on his face, shattered Sam's neck.

"Sam..." Dean croaked as he strangled himself, his legs kicking frantically as Zachariah levitated him off the ground.

The scenes continued to repeat in his head, and he could feel the pain they inflicted. He was gagging for air, his legs thrashing urgently as he tried to gain some purchase, he kept trying to pull away his hands but it was to no avail, they were stuck fast, constricting his airway bit by bit. His eyes were wide and bulging due to the lack of air, which try as he might, he couldn't rectify. Blood was pounding round his ears, spots were appearing in front of his vision as he lost his air, lost his life. He remembered the last time he had been strangled, by a hallucination induced by a djinn, and he'd had Sam to save him then.

Dean was making gagging noises, the scenes still playing before his eyes, which were bulging widely, even though he couldn't bear to look at them any longer. Dean gagged desperately in his throat, trying valiantly to get in some air so he could at least attempt to kill Zachariah with his bare hands.

"You wanted to commit suicide Dean, so here you are! All I'm doing is giving you a little nudge over the edge. Should have listened to me Dean! And now, at long last, you're going to pay for all you've done." Zachariah purred maliciously as Dean's legs continued to kick.

Dean gave desperate gagging noises, trying desperately to free himself, but the blackness was winning, he couldn't pry his hands off his neck. His legs were kicking violently, but he could tell his struggle was lessening. His legs were kicking less, the blackness getting more pronounced, he couldn't hear the blood in his head anymore, he was gurgling, eager for any air, gasping for any reprieve. Dean felt a small sliver of saliva run down from his mouth as he gagged again, and he felt his eyes begin to roll into his head. He kicked his legs urgently, before they finally went still.

Dean gave a last, defeated, gurgling sigh, not feeling the sliver of drool coming from his mouth, and Dean's eyes rolled back into his head and the darkness claimed him.

XX

"It's time Sam." Tessa said as Sam nervously watched as Dean and the others confronted Zachariah.

"No, I'm not going, I'm staying with Dean." He said stubbornly, and she rolled her eyes.

"Sam, believe it or not, but I am trying to help you. Your brother will be with you soon anyway, I'm just trying to spare you from having to witness his murder, like I know that jerk Zachariah is going to face him to witness yours again like he's been doing since you died. Please Sam, come with me." She said, her voice quite kind and only a little exasperated.

Sam looked at the beautiful reaper, and pondered his choice. He could go with her, go on to heaven, reunite with Jess, with Ellen, Jo, his mother, Rufus and everyone else they had lost along the way. There he could be happy, living out his own version of paradise, day by day.

But no. Not without Dean. They were in this together, and he wasn't going without his big brother, who still needed him, needed his help. He was what made Sam truly happy. Dean. And he wasn't going anywhere without him.

"No. I'm staying here, no matter what. If Bobby can work as a ghost, so can I." He said, and she shook her head desperately.

"Sam, I know you want to stay with your brother. I get it I really do. But you won't be a ghost for long." She said, and he looked at her curiously.

"How not?" he asked, and she sighed impatiently.

"Because the thing you're going to bind yourself to is Dean. And believe me when I say, he doesn't have long to live." She said, and Sam shook his head.

"No, Dean will get out of this, he always does. He'll kill Zachariah." He said loyally, and Tessa smiled a little hearing the petulant tone of the little brother.

"No, he won't. Sam please. Believe it or not, I'm actually quite fond of you two. I swear I'll reap Dean straight away and bring him straight to you. Just please, come with me now." She pleaded, holding out her hand.

"No." Sam snapped, looking on as Zachariah ranted to the others.

"Bloody Winchesters! You are the most stubborn creatures in all of creation! Just wake up and smell the coffee Sam! You're dead, you can't come back, and Dean is about to join you! It's over! Neither of you are going back this time!" she shouted in frustration.

"Now, that's all too defeatist. The kid isn't necessarily down and out." A familiar voice said, and Sam grinned as Rufus appeared before him, giving Tessa a scolding look.

"Rufus, good to see you." Sam said happily.

"Yeah you too Sam."

"Rufus, what are you doing here?" Tessa asked impatiently, and he grinned.

"Making sure a friend of mine doesn't heed your advice. You and I both know Sam and Dean aren't meant to die here." He ticked her off.

"You two know each other?" Sam asked in confusion, and Tessa nodded reluctantly.

"He's dating my mother." She said in a cold voice, while Rufus smiled wistfully.

Sam looked at his old friend incredulously.

"You're dating a reaper? That's just so wrong, on so many levels." He moaned, and Tessa winked at him.

"I know, I keep telling them that but they won't have it. And besides Rufus, Sam has no choice. His body is dead, devoid of blood, stone cold, with a massive knife wound to his stomach, other such wounds to his intestines and his liver and his kidneys, and his neck has been shattered into twelve tiny pieces. He is dead! And Dean is about to join him and you know it!" she said, and Sam glared at her.

"Alright, can you stop listing what the bastard did to my body, it's horrible." He said ruefully, and she gave him a dirty look.

"I'm just telling it like it is Sam. It's over for you. You are dead. The only one who might be able to resurrect you is Castiel, and he's comatose." She said scathingly.

"Now that isn't strictly true." Rufus said, and Sam looked at him curiously, and he smiled.

"You're a spirit Sam. Just like Bobby's a ghost. Oh give him grief from me for that will ya? Idiot. Anyway, what do ghosts and spirits have in common?" he asked, and Tessa looked at him in alarm.

"Rufus, shut it!" she snapped, but he waved her off.

Sam turned to where Zachariah had just blown the others off their feet, and it clicked.

"We can possess people." He said in realisation.

"And we both know that angels are arrogant sons of bitches. He won't be expecting it. And you've been dead for too long, you're on the threshold of becoming a ghost. You've been dead for so long you're beginning to influence the real world, that's how you talked to Dean earlier. Get it?" he asked leadingly, and Sam grinned.

"Rufus, you are a genius! Oh and thanks for all the gorgon info, really handy." He said, watching as Marion fired at the angel.

"He can't possess Zachariah, he would need a hole in the veil to get through in order to do it, and even then, there's no guarantees it will work! Sam, come with me!" Tessa snapped, glaring at Rufus.

"Kid, Sam here beat down Lucifer when he was in his own body. I reckon he can take some punk ass like Zachariah. Now I know you don't want to be down and out yet. So, you just going to stay dead and go with this 'charming' young lady, or are you gonna do something about it?" Rufus asked irritably.

"What do you mean by a hole in the veil?" Sam asked Tessa, who rolled her eyes.

"Sam, he's giving you false hope! The only way you'll get through is if one of your friends, or your brother, die. And that's looking all too likely." She said sadly, as Bobby was enveloped in flames.

"Bobby!" Sam and Rufus yelled in shock.

"It's over Sam. Zachariah's won. Face it." Tessa said, stroking the tears off his cheek.

"No, not yet." He said, as Jody collapsed, and a second later, she appeared beside him, looking confused.

"Oh, hi Jody." He said awkwardly, and she looked at him in surprise.

"Sam? But you're...oh. Does that mean I'm dead too?" she lamented, and Tessa nodded.

"Yes it does. Now, if you and Sam would like to come with me, and Rufus, if you would piss off and stop interfering in my reaping, I would greatly appreciate it." She said, and earned a glare from Rufus.

"He's not down and out yet. You don't know these boys the way I do." Rufus said, and a second later, Marion appeared, and although Sam tried to force past him, there was no way through the veil.

"Oh no...am I dead?" he whined, and Sam nodded reluctantly.

"Yeah, you kind of are." He said, and watched as Zachariah advanced on Dean victoriously.

"Oh and you must be Sam, nice to meet you." He said, shaking Sam's hand, and Tessa stood in front of Sam, looking at him imploringly.

"Sam, don't you see? Rufus should never have given you false hope the way he did. There's no way through the veil. It's over." She said softly, and Sam felt tears in his eyes as he watched Dean begin to strangle himself.

"Sam, we did the best we could, but the son of a bitch is just too powerful." Jody said, but Rufus shook his head.

"No. The veil will open when Dean comes close enough to death. You can do this Sam. We aren't ready for you boys to join us quite yet. Trust old Rufus." He said, and Sam nodded, fidgeting nervously.

"Excuse me, I'm a little new to the whole supernatural thing, but what happens now?" Marion asked, and Jody shrugged.

"I reap you and take you on, which would be a lot easier if Sam wasn't so stubborn, and if Rufus wasn't giving him false hope!" Tessa snapped, and he shot her a dirty look.

"It isn't false hope, and you know it. Sam, trust me, you can do this." Rufus said, and Jody looked at Sam urgently.

"Sam, you know what they're talking about?" she asked, and he nodded as Dean's legs began to still.

"Yes. It means don't sign your will just yet. I'm coming Dean." Sam promised, and leapt towards his brother.

XX

Dean's eyes rolled back, when suddenly the pressure on him was gone, his hands became free, and he dropped to the floor. He took deep gasping breaths, getting air back into his body as he looked up at Zachariah, wondering what twisted new thing he had planned for him this time.

And was surprised by what he saw.

Zachariah was staggering around, grunting in pain and annoyance, slapping himself in the face, sending pulses of bright white light into his body. He was jerking uncontrollably, and Dean backed away, still taking deep breaths as he watched, and a second later, Zachariah came to a stop, and looked down at Dean.

He then winked.

And in an instant, he knew who it was. After all, last time, it had been Dean doing the winking to his prone baby brother.

"Sammy?" he asked hopefully, his voice coarse yet overjoyed, and Samariah nodded.

"Yeah. FYI, he has a tiny penis. Right, let's see." He said musingly, looking around, shaking a little as Zachariah attacked him..

To see Tessa smiling at him, not the cold smile of a reaper, but the proud smile of a friend.

"Well I'll be damned. You did it. Good luck Sam. You're going to need it." She said, and vanished.

"Good lad. Ellen and Jo send their love! See you in a long time Sam!" Rufus called before he too was gone.

Leaving Sam in charge of Zachariah's body, as Dean looked up at him as though hardly daring to believe it. Samariah gestured, and Bobby's burnt flask appeared in his hand, and he blinked.

A second later, the flask returned to normal, and a second after that, Bobby appeared, patting out flames.

"Ow ow ow ow ow! Hot!" he cursed, putting out the last of the flames and looking around curiously, as if to see how he had wound up back here.

"Hi Bobby." Samariah said, staggering slightly as Zachariah tried to fight back.

"Sam?" he asked incredulously, and he nodded.

He then clicked his fingers, and Marion jolted up, coughing weakly, but he was once more alive, looking up at Samariah thankfully.

"Wow, I'm alive again, thanks." He said in relief, and Samariah then turned to Jody, and a second later, she was sitting up, looking dazed.

"Thanks Sam." She said gratefully as she got to her feet, helping Marion up.

Samariah then flicked his hand at Dean, healing the bruises on his neck. And then, it was like a weight left his shoulders, and Samariah sighed in relief.

"I got rid of the mental trauma he inflicted on you, kind of like what Cas did for me. And for the last time you idiot, you didn't kill me, he did." Samariah said, gasping in pain as Zachariah once more tried to regain control.

"Sammy!" Dean yelped, scrambling to his feet, but Sam seemed to be back in control, and he waved his hand.

And Dean's heart froze as Sam's dead body appeared before them, white and cold, and even Samariah looked a little off put by its appearance.

"Wow, I don't look so good. Right, let's see, bibbidi," he said cheerfully, and he healed the wounds made by the knife, "bobbidy," he continued, restoring his neck to its previous, unbroken state, "boo!" he concluded, and once more blood began to rush through his body, and colour began to be restored to him, and it was with great relief as he saw his chest begin to rise and fall.

"Sam! You're alive again!" Dean said in relief, and Samariah nodded, staggering as Zachariah rebelled against his control, his fury growing by the second.

"Yeah. Now, all of that's dealt with, so," he said, and a flask of oil appeared in Marion's hand.

"A jug of olive oil. Just what I always wanted." He said, bemused, and Samariah shook his head, grunting as Zachariah tried once more to take over, and he was finding it harder to remain in control as the furious angel tried to regain control of his body.

"Sam, you're not waking up!" Dean cried, and he rolled his eyes.

"That's because I'm still in this body you idiot. Now, take these." He commanded, and an angel sword appeared in his own unconscious hand, in Dean's, Jody's and in Marion's.

"Alright. I'm losing control, so we're going to need to be fast. Marion, pour a circle of oil around me." He ordered, and after looking at him in surprise, he did so, surrounding Zachariah's body, which was jerking angrily, and Sam knew he didn't have long before he lost all control.

"Now what?" Jody asked desperately, holding her sword ready.

"When I saw, light the oil. Ready? Five, four, three, two, one!" Samariah said, and Marion flicked his lighter and the ring of flames was suddenly surrounding Zachariah, trapping the angel.

"NO!" he spat furiously, and they were left in no illusions as to who was back in charge of their own body.

And suddenly Sam jerked bolt upright, breathing deeply as his soul returned to his body.

"Sammy!" Dean cried in ecstasy, as his brother got to his feet, glowering at Zachariah, who suddenly went very pale.

"No, don't!" he begged, and Sam glared hatefully at him.

"I seem to remember pleading a while ago, and you ignored me. Seems only fair I do the same for you." He sneered, readying his sword.

"You should never have killed my little brother." Dean growled, advancing on the trapped angel.

"Or us for that matter." Jody said bitterly.

"Or tried to turn Dean insane." Marion finished as all four of them advanced on Zachariah.

"No, wait, I'm an angel of the lord!"

"Who should have stayed dead!" Sam spat, and as one, the four of them leaned over the flames and plunged their swords into his head.

Zachariah gave a terrified, pained scream, as Sam's blade stabbed the same way Dean's had last time, and Dean's went the opposite way, stabbing down through his head and out the back. Marion stabbed down, right in the centre of Zachariah's bald head, and Jody stabbed the sword right through the side of his head.

Zachariah screamed in pain, as white light burst from his eyes and mouth. He raised his hands to his head, desperately trying to save himself, but he knew full well this was the end all over again. Light erupted from his body, and with a smoky blast, his wings embossed into the air. Bobby then poured the holy oil over him, lighting it as he did so, and Zachariah screamed in pain as the flames consumed him and the swords. There was then a whistling noise, and a black whirlwind twirled into the green room, bound right for him.

Zachariah screamed in eternal pain as the tornado whipped him up, his body doused in flames and white light erupting from it, just as the room began to shake, the pictures falling from the walls, the ornaments falling from their shelves.

"Time to go!" Dean yelled, grabbing Sam's wrist and dragging him to the door.

Marion headed for the door too, and Jody then saw the flask on the table.

"Whoops, sorry Bobby, nearly forgot you." She said sheepishly, picking it up.

"Thanks for remembering." He said gruffly, and she leapt out of the door just in time, just as the internal office building collapsed.

Sadly, it wasn't over, and Dean led the way, practically dragging Sam to the entrance of the crumbling warehouse. Marion turned and grabbed Jody's hand, and the two of them dashed for the door, and caught up with the boys, and they leapt through the door, just as the entire warehouse crumbled into rubble, sending dust into the air as the building collapsed into a ruined heap.

XX

"How the hell did you lose the prisoner and the body?" Charlie demanded furiously, and the young man shook his head.

"I don't know sir, the body was on the table one minute, the next it was just gone!" he protested, and Charlie had to stop himself from hitting the man.

The entire station was in an uproar. The sheriff was missing, the prisoner had escaped, and the body was gone. Which effectively amounted to having no case, which meant Dean Winchester had escaped justice and would never be sent down for the murder of his brother.

"Agent Valente, FBI." Valente said as he entered the station, viewing with disdain the country cops who were trying desperately to see what had happened.

Charlie blanched. Of all the times for the FBI to show up, now wasn't the best. It was worse than the worst.

"Um, Agent Valente, I am deputy Gander, and I'm sorry to have called you out, but we did have a Dean Winchester in custody for the murder of his brother, but he seems to have escaped and taken the sheriff with him, and we have misplaced the body as well." He said, knowing he would be lucky to be clearing out parking meters for the rest of his life.

And then, to his great surprise, Valente smiled.

"Hmm, I suspected something like this might happen. Don't worry deputy, you and yours are not truly to blame, you had no idea what you were dealing with. I'm going to go out on a limb and say Sam Winchester was resurrected somehow."

The entire station went quiet as they looked at him as if he were crazy.

"Sir, what do you mean?" Charlie asked, and Valente smiled.

"I mean he came back to life. I assure you deputy, Sam Winchester is even now walking and talking among the living." He said silkily.

"But that's impossible." The young man protested, and Valente smiled.

"Not when it comes to Sam and Dean Winchester. You did the right thing to alert me deputy. I will take over from here. Though, I could use some assistance. And a snack." He said darkly, eyeing the six cops in the room.

"Whatever you want sir." Charlie assured him proudly, and Valente smiled.

"I'd hoped you'd say that. I could use a man like you as an assistant. The rest, I could use as a snack." He said, licking his lips.

And then the entire station screamed as Valente tipped his head back, revealing a mouth of massive jagged teeth, and a bifurcated tongue, and he darted down and the young man Charlie had been yelling at knew no more his head was ripped off, spraying blood everywhere, and in another gulp his body was consumed.

XX

Charlie looked up at the blood stained face of Valente, who was advancing on him as he cowered against the wall, the entire station a grisly splattering of blood due to Valente having eaten all of the others.

"What the hell are you?" he demanded hysterically, throwing his gun at Valente as shooting him had had no effect, and he was out of bullets.

"A Leviathan, something far beyond your tiny human mind to comprehend. And what's more, I am the only one who can tell you what really happened to your brother." He purred, and Charlie looked at him in shock, making Valente smile.

"You know?" he demanded weakly, and the monster nodded, surveying the blood stains on the floor and walls.

"Yes I know. And I will tell you. Now, I can't let you leave here, not with my all you can eat buffet. But, if you help me, I will give you what you want the most." He said, and Charlie shook in fear as he looked up at the monster who had just murdered five of his co-workers.

"You need my help?" he asked weakly, and Valente nodded.

"Yes. And in return, you will get two things. Firstly, you will get back Dean Winchester, and all the answers to the case that has now vanished. And secondly, you will find out how your brother really died. And let's face it, you don't have much of a choice, because if you don't agree, I could always use you for dessert." He said, licking his lips, and Charlie shivered as he looked at the monster.

There was no way to beat this monster, who had shrugged off gunshots as if they were flies. He had killed everyone in the station, bar him. He was cornered in a bloodstained building with no way out. And the monster was offering him the identity of the one who had killed his brother, and also, Dean Winchester back where he belonged, and sent down for murder.

"You won't hurt me?" Charlie asked weakly, and Valente shook his head.

"Not while I have a use for you." He assured him, and Charlie, still terrified, got to his feet.

"Why?" Charlie asked suspiciously, and Valente smiled, his teeth stained red by the blood he had shed.

"Because you will be useful in my plans. And what's more, I can appreciate a man on a quest, to bring someone as dangerous as Dean Winchester, and believe me, he is dangerous, to justice."

Charlie nodded, his body quivering in fear. He had no choice. He had no way out, and this was the only way. And Valente said he knew what had happened to his brother. He had to find out, had to know. And if he got rid of Dean Winchester in the process, so much the better.

"You promise you'll tell me what happened to my brother?" Charlie asked, and Valente smiled.

"Once we have Dean, then yes. And you'd be surprised, just how connected those two goals are." He said sinisterly, and Charlie shuddered as he nodded.

What the hell had he gotten himself into?

XX

The five of them sat up and looked at the remains of the warehouse, and the next thing he knew, Sam was being wrapped in a fierce hug by his brother, which he gratefully returned.

"Please, don't ever, ever die on me again." Dean whispered into his ear as he held his brother close.

"I'll try. Miss me?" he asked with a smile, and Dean snorted in amusement.

"You have no idea." He said, letting go of Sam and helping his brother to his feet, as Marion helped Jody up.

"It's good to have you back Sam." She said, hugging him.

"Thanks. And thanks, for helping Dean." He said, and she smiled affectionately at the two of them.

"You're welcome." She said, as Bobby looked at Sam proudly.

"Thank god you're back kid. It just isn't the same without you around." He said fondly, and Sam smiled.

"And it's nice to finally meet you in person, with neither of us being dead." Marion said, shaking Sam's hand.

"Thank you as well, for believing in Dean." Sam said, and he nodded.

"Trust me, no one that depressed can kill someone." He said, and Dean shot him a glare, which was rather offset by the large smile on his face.

Sam was back. He was alive. He'd come back to him again. His little brother had helped him and had come back to save him. He was back. Sam was back!

"Everyone alright? I mean, you pair did die in there, and so did you Bobby, technically." Sam said, and he nodded.

"I feel great actually, your angel mojo gives quite the kick. What about you two?" he asked, and they shrugged.

"Well I feel fine." Jody said, and Marion nodded.

"Yeah so do I. But I gotta tell you, I'm in no particular hurry to die again." He said ruefully, and Dean smiled.

"Yeah, trust me, dying sucks. And Sammy...you die again, I'll kill you." He growled, an affect also offset by the large smile on his face, and Sam smiled and rolled his eyes in amusement.

"Yeah, this is going to be a tough one to explain back at the station. 'Yes, he did die, and then he possessed the angel that killed him, resurrected me and Sheriff Mills, brought back his ghost, saved his brother and then resurrected himself, and then we killed the real culprit' isn't exactly going to look good on the report. I'll think of something." Marion said musingly as the others laughed.

Except Sam.

"Yeah, about that. You can't go back to the station, at least for a while." He said, and they all looked at him in shock.

"Sammy?" Dean asked curiously, and his little brother turned to him.

"Dean, you were arrested as Dean Winchester. Which means, it would have tripped the FBI flag. Which means, the Leviathans will be looking for us." He said sadly, and Dean pouted.

Just when everything was going good, reality bit them in the ass.

"Meaning?" Marion asked, and Jody sighed, closing her eyes as she did so.

"Meaning we can't go home. At least not yet. We'll need to go to ground, hide for a while. Right?" she asked, and Bobby nodded.

"Yeah. Sorry Marion, but Sam's right. The Leviathans will be looking for the boys, and you will be in the firing line." He said grimly, and Marion looked a little taken aback.

"So, what do we do?" Jody asked, and Sam smiled.

"Run. Get to Canada if you want, just make sure you escape. You're two of the best friends we've got, and I'm sorry you got involved in all this, but you need to run." He said, and she nodded.

"Well, I have an aunt in Canada I've been planning on visiting. Fancy chumming me?" she asked Marion, who nodded reluctantly.

"I don't like this, but after seeing what an angel, spirit and ghost can do, I'm not that keen to try my luck with a Leviathan. I'll call the station, tell them I've been called away on family matters. How long will we have to stay away for?" he asked, and Dean shrugged.

"No clue. However long it takes for the big mouths to get bored. Or until we find a way to kill them and make it stick." He said, and Marion nodded.

"Alright then. Guess you have a travel partner to go to Canada with." He said, and Jody smiled.

"But first, I think we can get something to eat. All that dying and resurrecting really takes it out of you." Sam lamented, and they all laughed as they heard his stomach grumble.

XX

"Thanks Marion. You're a pretty cool dude for a copper. Keep in touch." Dean said, shaking his hand and wrapping him in a one armed hug.

"I will do. I quite like you boys. Not enough to swap careers with you, but in the last few days, I've become quite fond of you. Look after yourselves. You're good kids, and despite what people might think, you do good things too. So keep safe. I don't want my first two hunter friends getting munched by some big nasty." He said, shaking hands with Sam too.

"Yeah, you be careful too. And thanks for all your help. And would you mind keeping an eye on Jody?" Bobby asked in an undertone, and Marion smiled.

"Of course." He said, standing back to allow Jody through.

"Thanks Jody." Dean said gratefully as he hugged her.

"You're welcome Dean. Everything fine, no visions or anything?" she asked worriedly, and he nodded with a smile.

"Yeah, I'm good." He assured her, and she hugged Sam.

"Thanks Jody. For helping Dean, for everything really." He said, hugging her back.

"You're welcome. Now, you stay alive, you hear me? Because I've done my sympathy bit for your brother, and I only do it once." She said with a smile, and he grinned.

"Sure thing." He said, and she turned to Bobby.

"See you around Bobby." She said with a beautiful smile, and Sam and Dean looked knowingly at each other, grins on their faces as the area got a little warmer.

"See you around. You two be careful now." He said.

"Stay safe!" Marion called as he got into the car.

"And stay alive!" Jody said, waving at them fondly, and the other three waved, and the car drove out of sight, spiriting Marion and Jody to safety.

"Well, I'm ready to get out of here." Dean said, bundling their stuff (which Marion had taken from their car before they left Brandon) into the boot and climbing in to the driver's seat.

"You ok?" Sam asked softly as he climbed in, and Dean shot him a patient smile.

"You're the one who was stone cold only yesterday, I'm the one who should be worried about you." He said, and Sam grinned.

"Well, I'm fine, actually I feel better than I have in a while. But that isn't what I meant. How's your head?" he asked gently, and Dean frowned.

"It feels fine, whatever you did, it worked. But, I feel I kind of owe you an apology." He said, and Sam looked at him curiously.

"What for? I told you, Zachariah killed me, not you." He said, but Dean shook his head.

"No, not that. Back when you were going insane, I did some stupid things. Like the day you had your meltdown, I didn't even notice you were gone, I was so focused on getting revenge on Roman. And back when you couldn't sleep, I took the dad route and basically told you to suck it up and deal with it. That was wrong Sammy. You were literally going through hell, and I wasn't the most understanding or compassionate of brothers. I'm sorry." He said, and Sam shook his head.

"Dean, that wasn't your fault. You had no idea how you were meant to react to it, you did your best." He said, but Dean shrugged.

"Yeah, but at times, like when you hadn't been sleeping, I did less than my best. I never really got before now how much of a hell you were living. And I gotta say Sammy, Zach was right. I wasn't strong enough to cope with it. Sure I had just lost you, which didn't help, but even then, I still wasn't strong enough to cope with everything he was throwing at me, and whatever he was doing to me, Lucifer was doing worse to you. You need a lot stored away if you're going to deal with that, and you did, you held out brilliantly. I had it a few hours and I was going insane. You lasted so much longer, and that takes a lot of doing. Guess you're stronger than I ever thought. Or gave you credit for." He said proudly, ruffling Sam's hair to wind him up, smiling as he did so.

After all, he had his brother back, he was allowed to be really happy.

"Wow. Thanks Dean." Sam said, his cheeks going slightly pink in pleasure as he swatted away Dean's hand and put his hair back to the way it was.

They were silent a minute, just sitting in the carpark, until Sam spoke again.

"Dean, I heard enough of your visions to know what was going through your head." He said softly, and he noted that Dean sort of froze.

"And?"

"And I think you're being ridiculous. Look Dean, I'm not going to pretend that I haven't thought some of the things over the years, especially stuff like the Cas stuff. But I think we've been through enough recently to know that whatever stuff we've been through in the past, we are well and truly over now." He said, and Dean grinned.

"Thanks Sam. Oh, and thanks, for coming back. And for sticking around." He said, and Sam grinned ruefully.

"You needed my help. You were going through the same thing as I was. You were my stone number one," he began, until Dean gave a whimsical grin.

"Yeah, until I pretty much destroyed the foundations by going behind your back." He said sheepishly, and Sam smiled, rolling his eyes.

"And I figured you might want me as yours. Did I help?" he asked, and Dean nodded.

"Yeah. You really did Sammy. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have made it to Zachariah. But I would like to register a complaint." He said, and Sam looked at him curiously, grinning when Dean showed him his hand.

"You could have healed this scar when you did everything else couldn't you?" he asked, and Sam laughed.

"Sorry, I forgot I put it there. Besides. There's not many brothers who can say they have matching tattoos and matching scars." He said lightly, and Dean snorted in amusement.

He started the car, rolling down the windows.

"Dean?" Sam asked softly, hesitantly, and Dean suspected he knew what was coming up.

"Yeah?" he asked casually.

"Would you have hated me, if I'd stayed as a ghost?" he asked softly.

Dean knew he had hurt Sam when he had told him he didn't want him to stick around as a ghost back in the station. He also knew he had to answer this question, Sam deserved an answer.

"To tell you the truth Sammy, I don't really know. I might have been pissed, but I might have been happy that you stuck around. I just don't know." He said, and he saw the faint traces of hurt on his brother's face, and he smiled and nudged his shoulder.

"But out of all the outcomes, I prefer this one best, when you're alive again, with me, where you belong." He said, and Sam grinned.

"Yeah. I'm sorry." He said meekly, and Dean shook his head.

"Not your fault you died Sammy. And you brought back all the others and yourself, so I think I'll let you off just this once. But...please don't die on me again any time soon, it sucks." Dean said softly, and Sam nodded.

"Yeah, not really something I'm planning on doing again any time soon. I just felt so guilty, seeing how devastated you were, it kept me from worrying about me because I was so concerned about you." He explained, and Dean grinned.

That was his little brother alright, more concerned about his big brother than his own rather large predicament. Bless him.

"Just as long as you come back. But still, don't do it again." Dean said in a scolding voice, and Sam grinned.

"I'll try. Reckon Zachariah was the last old bad guy we have to deal with?" he asked, and Dean shrugged.

"He better be. Please say next time I see Cas I can smack him one, he really deserves it now." He pleaded, and Sam nodded.

"Yeah. Dying tends to change my perspective. I might even smack him once or twice myself the jerk." He grumbled, and Dean grinned widely.

"You're going to be smiling like that all the way to the next motel aren't you?" he asked, shaking his head in amusement.

"Hey! My baby brother died and came back, I went insane and went back to normal, we made a new friend, and one of the biggest wankers we've ever faced came back and is now back in Purgatory where he belongs. I have every reason to be happy. Leave me in peace." He protested ruefully, and Sam laughed as he saw the delighted expression on his face.

"Alright fine. I suppose we do have a lot to be happy about." He said, grinning himself while he chose the music.

"Damn right we do. You came back, Zach's dead, everything's back to normal, so lighten up Sammy and celebrate! And tonight, I don't care what you say, we are celebrating in style!" he declared and Sam grinned.

"I hope you don't want to go and find a girlfriend. Or a boyfriend." He said teasingly, and Dean shot him a mock glare.

"I was hoping dying would make you forget about that. Apparently not. And no, I don't. Just the three of us, celebrating, no arguments. Got it?" he asked cheerfully as they drove out of the small town they were in.

"Got it Dean." Sam said with a smile, the music blasting from the stereo.

"Good. I'm glad you're back. Bitch." Dean said fondly.

"Me too. Jerk." Sam said, leaning his head back to get some sleep.

And in the back, as always, Bobby looked at his two boys and smiled widely too, chuckling to himself.

"Edjits."

**The end!**

**Did anyone believe I would let Sam stay dead? Course not, I'm much too fond of him for that to happen. So, Zachariah is dead again, the boys are happy and healthy, Sam is alive, and all is well that ends well. Even Marion and Jody got out relatively unscathed.  
**

**But, Valente and Charlie Gander are still out there, and will soon be on the boy's tail for the finale of this arc of stories!  
**

**Anyway, I felt that the way Dean sometimes handled Sam's insanity was far too inconsistent, and if your brother really is going nuts, how the hell do you let him go walking off on his own? And the episode when Sam hadnt slept at all, he didnt seem the most sympathetic either, so I felt that needed resolved. And some of the things, like the argument with Cas, and some of Dean's other visions are things I also felt needed tackled.  
**

**And Zachariah is dealt with. No matter what, he's still my most hated character, he even edges in front of the boys dad and that is saying something.  
**

**So, have we seen the last of Marion and Jody? Will Valente and Charlie catch up with Sam and Dean? And what does Valente know about the death of Charlie's brother, and how does it tie in with Dean?  
**

**I'm afraid you're going to have to wait till the story after next to find out! Because next time we are bound for New Orleans, and will incorporate voodoo, so I hope that pleases you snseriesfan, that's the one I said you had rumbled me on. So, the next story will be called Voodoo Revenge, and will hopefully start tomorrow!  
**

**So, that's it for Sundered Veil, I hope you enjoyed it, I'm so glad Sam's alive again (speaking of has everyone seen the news that hes getting a love interest in season eight? How long do we reckon she'll last with the infmaous 'sleep with Sam and die problem'), and as always, please read and leave lots of reviews, and I hope to see you soon on Voodoo Revenge!  
**

**Oh, and by the way, a character has undergone a significant change in the next story...  
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**Anyway, hope you enjoyed, please keep reading and dont forget to review!  
**


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